As dinner time approached this past Thursday, the local TV stations began reporting severe thunderstorm warnings for Huntsville. The storm eventually produced a funnel cloud that touched down as a relatively weak tornado right in the middle of the city.  There were scattered areas of tornado damage along the pathway but only a few minor injuries.

While we could not see the funnel cloud from our house, we were able to watch the entire development of the tornado on TV. The local ABC affiliate has a camera on Monte Sano Mountain east of Huntsville, and that camera caught all the action, which was then broadcast live. It was facinating. After the storm cleared the area, people began uploading their pictures to the local ABC web site. I downloaded the above picture from that site.

The tornado season for North Alabama general doesn't start until the first of March. So this guy is an early-bird. It's what we get when it's still winter and the temperature is in the 60s and the wind blows the moist air out of the south.