It finally happened.....

[Dionne]

Yesterday morning while traveling north on I-55 near mile 51 (Wesson, Mississippi) it finally happened. The weather had been bad all morning......heavy rain, lightning. Before I traveled....I checked the NWS doppler and noticed a severe storm over in Louisiana......nothing else......just a good rain event. Conditions continued to deteriorate. Eventually it was 35 mph with flashers.....poor visibility. I noticed a very dark cloud off to my west about a 1/4 mile ahead. I continued slowing down as visibility decreased until I was at a stop. Very strong winds. Torrential rain. At one point I though I saw a tree fly past......and dismissed the idea. My biggest concern was my truck rolling over.....bouncing in the winds. The entire deal lasted maybe 90 seconds......if that. As visibility returned it was shocking.......timber was down everywhere. The winds had cut a swath about 100 meters wide running west to east.

I don't know if it was a microburst, straight line winds or a tornado. But I can tell you this.....I just used up my luck for awhile.

[Tstormwatcher]

Wow, sounds like you were very lucky to have stopped when you did.

[MGC]

I did hear reports of a possible tornado near Brookehaven. Did you get to observe the debris pattern?...MGC

[Dionne]

I did hear reports of a possible tornado near Brookehaven. Did you get to observe the debris pattern?...MGC

Yes and no. I did not see the mobile homes that were destroyed. I was in a rural area.....all I saw was the downed timber.....it was all facing in one direction. The winds snapped off some big old trees.....both hardwoods and longleaf (loblolly) pines. If your familiar with I-55......the debris field is just north of the newly remodeled rest area. The newspaper said that the winds cut a swath 9 miles long. I suspect what saved me is that I had my work truck loaded down heavy with materials from Home Depot in Brookhaven.

[JenBayles]

Wow Dionne! I think you just earned the right for a vacation. Glad to hear you stopped in the nick of time.

A similar event happened to me and my husband several years ago about 100 miles north of Houston in the middle of nothing. Like you, the area is full of huge old pines. We were on a Harley Sportster for a quick afternoon spin, when we got nailed by a gust front. No rain - that came later. We were headed west and saw trees flying across the road about 200 yards ahead. The semi ahead of us got blown completely across the highway in front of oncoming traffic before stopping off the road - on the other side.

When the wind hit us, it slammed the bike almost to the pavement. Had we not been expecting to get nailed, we wouldn't have been able to counterbalance in time. After that, we turned south and ran home as fast as we could. Got caught two more times before we were done. The last blast hit us after it traveled over Lord-only-knows how many acres of dry, plowed farm land. Talk about a dust storm! Bad enough when you're in a car, but on a motorcycle? GAK!

[MississippiHurricane]

WOW! I know that had to be scary for you. Glad your okay and you made it through that situation. I havent been that way in a long while . Reminds me of a time i was doing a new car inspection and i was driving in Jackson. As i turned down this street the wind picked up and this light Hyundai Elanta felt like it was about to lift off........the whole back-end of the car felt like it was in the air.

[Stephanie]

WOW!! I'm glad that you are alright. This was definitely something more than a thunderstorm.

It'll be interesting to see what is reported in the news in that area. Let us know what the final determination was.

[Category 5]

SPC is calling it a tornado. Sure sounds scary. Glad you're ok.

1500 4 ENE BROOKHAVEN LINCOLN MS 3161 9038 *** 1 INJ *** UPDATE FROM NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM...2 MOBILE HOMES DESTROYED...CAMPER TRAILER HEAVILY DAMAGED...WORKSHOP DESTROYED...NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ON POWERLINES AND (JAN)

[2 Seam Fastball]

Did you see Dorothy and Toto fly by?

[Dionne]

Did you see Dorothy and Toto fly by?

Nope......those things I saw flying......turns out they really were trees.....or rather....parts of trees. I was down that way a few days ago and took a closer look. Not much of the timber downed was fulled trees......a good percentage were tree tops blown out.

[CajunMama]

At least you didn't see any cows fly in front of ya!