SPECIAL BLOG: 1 Year anniversary of December 10 tornadoes

 𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐔𝐍𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑: 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏. 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑.

On this day, one year ago..... whole towns, people's lives, kid's Christmas presents....,homes, businesses were ripped apart by a historic, unbelievable outbreak of nocturnal tornadoes and severe weather. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would watch the towns of Samburg Tennessee, Mayfield Kentucky, and plenty others get ripped apart by a 1 mile wide monster with 190 Mph winds. In the days and weeks after the event, many of you reached out and said Thank you. However, In a time like this, no thanks is necessary. Being part of the weather community, it is our job to warn people of dangerous weather, and save lives. That is what we did that night. In the days after the events of December 10, I heard some incredible stories of survival. One in particular came from an older couple who lived in Mayfield KY. They lived in a mobile home, and they said they normally don't listen to the warnings. On that night however, they knew something wasn't right, and something was terribly wrong, so they left their mobile home 45 minutes before the tornado hit. When they returned at 1 am in the morning, their mobile home was gone. This is a perfect example as to why you cannot stay in a mobile home during a tornado. Had that couple ignored the warning they would not be alive today. Even one year later, the scar from that night still sticks out like a sore thumb. Today, I have seen photo's of the recovery and rebuilding that has taken place over the last year. Seeing these photos, I am reminded of the song "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". Indeed that is very true! These tornadoes may have left their mark, however we are stronger as a whole.

I know there are a lot of people that want to know why this event happened. Below, I have attached a graphic that I have spent the last week or so creating. The meteorological set up was a classic spring like set-up, only occurring two weeks before Christmas. The Gulf of Mexico was running 3-4 degrees warmer, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that really impacts how bad things get during severe weather events locally. It proved that, the night of December 10. A southerly flow of warm moist air streamed northward out of the Gulf ahead of an Intensifying cold front the day of the event. This southerly flow, combined with a warm front that was already lifting through our area added a lot of warm unstable air over our area, and ultimately set the stage for violent storms that night. As the cold front moved east, a interesting meteorological feature known as a dryline developed. That is a very narrow line of dry air that collides with warm air, and supercells love to form on drylines. That is exactly what happened that night. The supercells formed on the dryline, and a line of storms developed along the cold front. Intense wind shear aloft allowed, and warm unstable air at the surface allowed these cells to rotate and put down violent tornadoes over our area.

As we remember this event, I want you all to know something. An event like this is EXTREMELY RARE! This was a generational tornado outbreak. Meaning, something like this only happens every 40 years. We lost 90 precious lives over 6 states that night. Honestly, I thought we would have more. I am glad we didn't. Had this same event occurred 10 years ago, I am sure the death toll would be MUCH higher. Had it not been for the EXCELLENT warnings issued by the National Weather Service in Memphis, towns and cities opening up storm shelters, and emergency managers stressing to the public at how dangerous this could be, and so many others...this death toll would have been much much higher.