I heard a report on the TV news recently about Tennessee being part of tornado alley. They were saying that technically, it's not. But realistically it probably should be. (That report also has some interesting Tennessee tornado facts in it.)

And here's a video report from another local TV station about Tennessee being in 'the new tornado alley'. They also say in a related report that Tennesseans are living in the NEW tornado alley.

So I dug around a little to try and find some stats about Tennessee tornadoes...

Franklin was under the gun through a series of very bad thunderstorms, hail storms, and tornadoes from about 4pm until well after midnight on Friday, April 7, 2006.

When all was said and done, some 35 tornadoes had touched down in Middle Tennessee -- in virtually every direction surrounding our home. The closest came within 8 miles of our house.

Welcome to my world...

This is my welcome mat:

Yes, that is HAIL... about a thousand marble-sized hail pellets landed on our back step in a matter of seconds today!

(The above photo was taken at 5:17 p.m. today.)