Georgia Dome Tornado

[Larry Enzor]

We are coming up on the third anniversary of a tornado hitting the Georgia Dome during the SEC basketball tournament (ironically that tournament is back there again this weekend). This article brought back memories of watching coverage of this event.

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/03/10/1664614/memories-of-georgia-dome-tornado.html

As a relative newbie, I was curious if any of the more experienced folks here remembered this event, and if so what their impressions were. Also, would a domed stadium be a relative safe place in a situation like that? Thanks.

 

[Wes Carter]

I remember that very well. The video was pretty scary too.

It would be nice if Tim Marshall chimed in on this, but I don't think a dome is very safe at all. They have a vast expanse of unsupported roof. Even though it might be relatively aerodynamic, the outer walls are not and would have a lot of wind loading. If the integrity of one of the walls was compromised, the whole roof could become a giant sail.

By the way, I'm no expert. I'm just speculating but I'd be seeking safe shelter if I were in that situation.

 

[Brian Davidson]

What I want to know is why no one was paying attention to the weather? You would think the tournament director would have someone paying attention to the weather

 

[rdale]

What I want to know is why no one was paying attention to the weather?

"Because it'll never hit here."

http://www.norman.noaa.gov/NSWW2008/Lemon.pdf

 

[JF Massicotte]

"Because it'll never hit here."

http://www.norman.noaa.gov/NSWW2008/Lemon.pdf

There is the SPC tornado prob map:

The SPC event page shows there were no watch at all for Georgia. I remember folowing this event since the main focus was further West, and I remember these two supercells came out of nowhere. Tornado warning was sent while the storm was 6 miles from downtown. I also remember listening to the scanners from Atlanta were we could hear about major structural damage as reported by the firefighters.

Weather forecasters probably were busy forecasting the next day's event (High risk in the afternoon) and didn't really see this one coming.

So I don't think we can really blame the tournament's officials for not monitoring the weather that night.

 

[rdale]

That's the last thing the officials would have been looking at Wasn't a tornado warning issued for it?

 

[JF Massicotte]

That's the last thing the officials would have been looking at Wasn't a tornado warning issued for it?

TOR was issued while the storm was 6 miles from downtown... Very little lead time.

 

[Coy A. Wilhelmy]

TOR was issued while the storm was 6 miles from downtown... Very little lead time.

The storm actually passed over me in Marietta, GA prior to being tornado warned, and Marietta is only 20+/- miles away. I was suprised how quickly it became very strong in such a short period.

 

[Jennifer Palmer]

I remember this very well. Strong very isolated supercell... Very isolated meaning there was NOTHING else around!

I'm a big sports fan, and I was watching the tourney. My first thought was a terrorist attack, but then they started talking about the severe weather, so I pulled up the radar.

One of my best friends was injured in the storm when a tree limb smashed his windshield.

The day after was a pretty amazing severe weather outbreak, too!

 

[Zack Hargrove]

It wasn't entirely isolated. There were about 3 or 4 other isolated cells on a boundary, but the Dome storm is the only one that went super cellular and severe at all. The other couple storms were very close to severe limits though because one went just South of us in Cartersville, GA and it was not the Dome tornado cell. The next day will always be a memorable day. I wasn't experienced enough to chase yet and a tornado touched down 11 miles away from my house in the Taylorsville, GA area.