206. More Weather

Yesterday was a rather adventurous day, weatherwise, here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. And the weather was more April-like than October. For the first time in over three years (if my memory serves me), the Tornado Sirens were activated around 6:50 pm, meant to indicate that a funnel cloud or tornado had been sighted somewhere in the county. The last time I recall this was during the summer of 2004, when strong winds blew through the University of Louisville area. In that storm, I stayed under the Fourth Street Viaduct, just south of campus and watched whatever it was cross over the railroad tracks and make its way east toward Germantown and Crescent Hill. Last night's storm moved in from Harrison County, Indiana, then jumped directly into downtown, crossing directly over my home just east of downtown, although we never lost power. There was a great deal of damage to a building two blocks due south of me, as well as some blown transformers, and trees being toppled all through the area. This storm then headed toward Crescent Hill, and from there it followed I-71 to Oldham and Henry counties. Despite all the damage, including a tree falling on a passing motorist along Lexington Road in which the driver, a 28 year old student from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was not injured, today the Weather Service is saying no tornado touched down in Jefferson County, although they are confirming that the line which moved through here did produce tornadoes elsewhere. (I'm assuming that is how you spell the plural of tornado, and if Dan Quayle were around I'd feel better about my spelling prowess). A second line moved through about an hour and a half later, and a third line, stronger than the second, but not nearly as strong as the first, arrived about 11:10 pm.

Like all mornings-after the previous night's storms, the skyline today is a beautiful shade of blue, and the temperature more appropriately in the 60s and 70s, as opposed to yesterday afternoon's mid 80s.

As the storm moved through, I went next-door to a neighbor's house to watch all the excitement on TV. Everytime the weathercaster would use his computer and electronically track where the storm was headed, I recognized all those little villages and post offices that very few people know about - places like Skylight, Liro, and Sulphur northeast of Louisville, and Derby, New Amsterdam, and Sulphur (again) in the counties west of Louisville in southern Indiana. As each new "projection" was made, I was telling her where it was, or some cases, where it once was, as some of those names they use are there in name only - burgs which have passed their way into history usually leaving only an intersection, or maybe a church, to carry on the name.

They all show up on the latest Doppler projections.