DODGED ANOTHER WEATHER BULLET

There have been several occasions when bad weather systems have passed over, under, or around us, and last night was another.

Walden Ridge (or Walden's Ridge) is a mountain ridge and escarpment located north of Harriman and Rockwood, TN. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is about 74 miles long, running generally north-south. The mountain range generally separates East from Middle Tennessee.

It’s this range, being over 3,000 feet at its highest, that protects our section of the Tennessee Valley, sometimes called the Volunteer Valley. Frequently heavy storms, those with high winds or tornadic activity, and even heavy snows, are pushed from their normal easterly track, around Roane County and further north into Anderson (Oak Ridge) and Knox (Knoxville) Counties. There have been two occasions within the last 5 years when tornadoes have come down off the Cumberland Plateau and into Morgan County (just 5 miles from my house), but in my memory there has never been a tornado in Roane County. One could argue that Mossy Grove is in Roane County, but technically it is on the county line (CLICK HERE) and considered Morgan County.

We have had “down burst” that pushed a lot of trees on my property down, but there was no evidence of twisting in the downfalls.

Last evening the warnings were for high winds and heavy rains. We got a lot of heavy rain and some wind, but nothing damaging. The warnings of 50 mph winds locally, and 80 mph in the mountains, were heeded by the local utility companies, who kept workers over sharpening chainsaws, and just “in case”. As for us, the higher winds seemed to go around us…thankfully.

However, there is evidence of the heavy rains in our backyard…well; technically that part of “my” yard belongs to TVA. Yesterday you could see nothing but mud for about 300 yards out, but this morning the water level was about 40 to 50 feet up into “their” yard (it has been higher)! They are reporting that our area received over 3” of rain, and the areas up stream got 2 or more inches, and it all accounted for what’s in “our” yard today.

I sure hope everyone fared as well. My backyard will handle the rain, but I can do without heavy winds.

I do wish the mountain would allow the heavy snows through!