This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

A Rare November Day

This blogger always looks forward to November's weather except for days like November 16.

Large wet leaves blanket the area. Squirrels and deer alike scour the land to collect acorns. Certain days it’s humid and other days the chill goes through our bones. We could always use the rain. has been down more than 10 feet this season. There are clusters of days where our furnaces are distributing heat in our dwellings and then they get a rest when it warms up outside. The most baffling weather events occur from time to time in the autumn. We typically hit long dry spells followed by a day or two of torrential rains. It’s rarely an all-day droning rain. We experience rain events that are too much, too fast.

It was mid-November and we were under a tornado warning. What? In mid-November? Indeed, our weather patterns are similar to a roller coaster, but a violent weather event in November is rare, but not surprising these days. The extreme humid air met cold, a recipe for disaster. One can just feel that something’s amiss on days like that.

It was the afternoon of November 16. The warnings were issued via radio, Web and television.

Find out what's happening in Peachtree Cornerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Batten down the hatches! Buckle up! This is going to be a nasty ride!” the perfectly coiffed television weather personnel caterwauled throughout their special programming -- which pre-empted the regularly scheduled network fare including the remaining soap operas, game and cooking shows. Yes, the local weather aficionados provide an important public safety announcement. Scores of examples can be found where television meteorologists saved lives in many U.S. markets.

However, one meteorologist suggested that students should take shelter in the school’s gymnasiums. My Facebook friends and I were having a discussion if that was good advice. I imagined it wasn’t a sound suggestion as I thought about the March 2007 tornado that hit a high school in Enterprise, Alabama. I told the group that I believe students lost their lives due to the fact that they were probably in the gym where it is not the safest part of the school. Still, the weather reporters go beyond providing the facts and add plenty of drama which makes for great television.

Find out what's happening in Peachtree Cornerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To me, it seems like these disconcerting weather events happen more frequently. Perhaps it’s because I’m a homeowner and just wish that I will not have to deal with damage followed by the insurance adjusters, tree cutters and contractors who descend on the area like vultures. Whenever these systems come upon us, I just hope for a quick passage to the violent weather and pray that no one will lose their precious belongings and worse yet, their lives.

As it turned out, the schools properly responded. My little one had to go to an interior hallway and crouch down on the floor.

When the students were getting into position in the school hallway, they were talking about the possibility of the school getting ripped apart by a twister and what would happen in its aftermath.

“It would be cool if we could go to school in a mall like they did in Alabama,” my daughter commented to a fellow student.

Yikes! My kid in a makeshift mall classroom is my pocketbook’s worst nightmare.

When my daughter arrived home, I asked how they handled the real tornado drill.

"We had to get on the ground," my daughter recalled. "I saw so much gross stuff on the floor, Daddy! They don't clean those floors." 

"Well thankfully, you're all OK," I replied. "We're all lucky this time."

I've seen many of these types of freak weather events played out over my more than 20 years in the metro area. I always take the warnings seriously.

A pine tree snapped and fell on his vehicle as he most likely was trying to outrun the storm. I was thinking about how another family is now without a husband, father and provider. One minute there’s calm, peace, serenity and the next, mayhem, chaos and insecurity. It’s unexplainable. It’s unimaginable.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Peachtree Corners