NWGA Severe Weather Team

00:00
North Georgia WeatherTeam @f:100001029616672
  • Level 1
  • Fanned 0
We are a storm chasing team based out of Rome, GA with a range across  GA and AL. We are also affiliates with local news RomeNewswire.com

Our Chasers:
Captain/Photog- Hayden Jennings
Driver/Asst.Capt.- Devin Womack
Video- Jennifer Womack

We are a freelance team of storm chasers based out of Rome, GA. We have been chasing for two years now with several severe weather outbreaks under our belts. Our chases range from  Georgia into Alabama

The team began with Hayden Jennings and Devin Womack in 2006 after we took a Skywarn weather spotter class and found the shared interest of severe weather. After Hayden covered the 2008 tornado in the Wax community for Rome Newswire, this further sparked the formation by us of a storm chasing team.

Jennifer Womack joined the team for the 2009 season which climaxed on May 3 when the team chased two tornadic cells from the area of Cave Spring and Cedartown to Taylorsville and captured a large tail cloud and large area of rotation.

The team formally organized coming into the 2010 season, and went on our first chase on April 24, 2010. The day proved interesting as a major tornado outbreak erupted over Missippi and Alabama. The team was able to intercept a massive supercell in Hartselle, AL that had dropped a deadly EF4 tornado only two hours earlier in MS. We caught many different weather images, but the highlight was a small funnel that passed over our truck on the interstate.

In May 2010, the team began an affiliation with Rome Newswire, providing local weather coverage including images and stories.

The 2011 Season was the most successful season for the team yet. The season began in March when we chased to Prattville, AL, where we set up atop a hill that evening, and were able to spot with lightning a deadly EF-3 Tornado about 20 miles North near Autaugaville, AL. On April 15, the team chased to Clanton, where we thought we had made a bust, but we salvaged the day by catching the most photogenic supercell we have ever seen, which dropped a large wedge tornado that lifted into a funnel cloud just before it reached our position at Columbiana, where it also dropped ping-pong sized hail on us. The biggest day of 2011 came on the evening of April 27, when we went up against the biggest storm we had ever encountered, after devastating the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham Areas, that same supercell bore down on us as we positioned ourselves to chase it just outside Gadsden. There, we encountered the outskirts on an EF-4 Tornado as it passed a mile south of us. Though we beagn chasing it from behind, we came upon the 1 1/4 mile damage path near Glencoe, AL, and terminated the chase to help with rescue operations there.

With the 2012 season approaching, we hope to bring our followers even more improved weather coverage boith from the Rome and Northwest Georgia area, and from our chases around our region.