Tornados Almost

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Adventure Date: 01-12-2023

The OFM was barely at the dining table when the phone rang. It was Kiddo his son on the phone talking about a couple of tornadoes running around in Decatur and headed our way. So the hungry in the OFM had to wait as we checked out the weather situation. We got both of us on the same weather channel so we both could see the same radar to decide what to do.

It turned out the two circular wind storms were about 6 miles NW of the OFM. As it turned out they were almost tornadoes just right at becoming full tornadoes. They did some serious damage to Jays Landing area along the Tennessee River and then weakened and spread out a bit and moved on northeast from the OFM. To the best of our knowledge they mostly missed Kiddos home and area with serious wind also. So we came out of that mess pretty lucky.

We did get a huge deluge of rain during the tornado attempts. Here is what the campsite looked like right after one of the deluges stopped.

Overall the area had little serious damage from the storm but we certainly came close to having some serious repair work start to being needed.

Later in the day when things had calmed down we thought the nice blue skies and warm sunshine should be used productively and went for a nice walk. As it turns out we must have gotten a lot more rain than the OFM thought we did. Several creeks that had been dry for weeks were running full. Other places on the gravel trail were under a few inches of water. 

The wind was helping dry things out in the area. Check out the soccer field Flag drying out in the breeze.

The rest of the day was pleasant as we waited for the soaked campground to dry out.

The OFM touched base with his friends in Rockport Texas this afternoon. They clued him in on the situation down there. It is good. So now all the OFM needs to do is get himself on the road on the 21^st and get on down there with his fishing gear. We take four days to make the thousand mile trip. Our first location down there is a reserved site in Goose Island State Park. The OFM first was there back when when 43 year old Kiddo was barely walking.

After we make it there and the OFM has time to consider his eyesight limitations we will choose what our next move will be. In the meantime you can count on us doing our best at trying to have tooooo much fun.