SCCA National Tour - Walnut Ridge, AR 3/31-4/2

[altiain]

Yikes was this on Sunday??

Yeah. Apparently quite a lot of people that left later in the day caught some really nasty weather. Zack & Mindy caught softball-sized hail with the Miata near Bald Knob, AR (insert your own joke here) on their way back to Austin. Andy and Ann Hollis had holes punched through the roof of their motorhome. Some of the northbound people barely missed tornados, and apparently one passed over Highway 67 just south of Pocahontas.

We were either very smart or very lucky to leave after 2nd heat on Sunday. If we had stuck around until the end of 4th heat, we would have caught the same weather headed home.

[cone-cerned]

Yikes was this on Sunday??

Yes, about 5:45 pm. I was taking a nap before going to dinner when the phone rang. It was the desk clerk calling to tell me about the tornado and hail warning. I had time to get my car under the awning before the marble sized hail hit. There was baseball sized hail on the north side of Pocahontas. A small tornado was just the other side of the warehouse next to the Days Inn. When I saw it, it was already moving away from us. A large, maybe F3, tornado did a lot of damage about 2 miles south. It knocked the power out. Power was off for about an hour and a half. The cable for the TV was off all night.

[SpinOutF500]

I love the picture of me, and it even included my time! Thanks Cone-cerned! That was my first run on Sunday, and I just couldn't get into the 41's. And I tried, my second and third runs had a bobble or 2 that kept me from it. I was pretty consistent on Sunday.

Yes, Sunday night in north Arkansas was very bad. Unless you spent the night and stayed in Jonesboro. Like we did. After the event we went back to the room and every news channel was talking about the big storm up north of Walnut Ridge in Pocahontas and the smaller one down by Bald Knob.

Jonesboro was calm and dry all night long. We definitely lucked out. On the news Monday morning, they said there were 60 tornado reports and 308 or so for hail from those storms.

For some incredible pictures, check out what I received at work a few days ago. We manufacture Rail Cars also, so this was a competitor of ours. I think the town was over 80% destroyed.

The attached link is of pictures in Marmaduke, Arkansas (just east of Pocahontas). Most of the pictures are of the ARI Rail Tank Car Facility Car that Jimmy Canada built about 5 years ago. I thought you might be interested in seeing what a tornado can due to a rail tank car. Amazingly no one was killed.
http://imageevent.com/brobert/marmaduke?n=o

Later,

SpinOutF500

[POS Racing]

More Pictures!

http://www.digitalracephotography.co...nut_ridge.html

[Treibenschnell]

Nice!