Our good friend Jerry Orchanian from the National Weather Service in Nashville recently was told that you can listen to NOAA Weather Radio on a Verizon Wireless phone by dialing *9.
He was teaching a Severe Weather Spotter Class in McMinnville, TN when one of the students showed him this on his phone. I tried it, and sure enough it worked on my phone!
I understand that it does not work in the western states. We have also heard that it is not in the Atlanta area.
Jerry called Verizon and they said it is a free service to their customers. I put in an e mail to Verizon, and they said that there are no minutes charged!

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma issued an ominous forecast for Middle Tennessee for Sunday. Although we did have some large hail reported (see “Sunday’s Storm Reports” below), it didn’t turn out to be as bad as predicted.
That’s a good thing.
The folks at the Storm Prediction Center are the best in the world at forecasting severe weather, and below are some of the statements they put on their web site:

BASED ON LATEST
NAM GUIDANCE AND FCST SOUNDINGS…THE AREA FROM HUNTSVILLE/AL TO
NASHVILLE/TN MAY EXPERIENCE THE GREATEST CHANCE FOR A FEW LONG TRACK
SUPERCELLS…POSSIBLY PRODUCING STRONG TORNADOES…IN ADDITION TO
VERY LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS DURING SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

MORE SIGNIFICANT SEVERE STORMS…INCLUDING LONG-LIVED SUPERCELLS
CAPABLE OF TORNADOES /SOME OF WHICH COULD BE SIGNIFICANT/…LARGE
HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS…ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP BY LATE MORNING OR
AFTERNOON CLOSER TO SURFACE AND UPPER-LEVEL LOWS FROM MIDDLE TN INTO
NRN/CNTRL AL.

So what happened? Luckily the low pressure center stayed a little further south keeping most of Middle Tennessee in cooler temperatures. The cooler and less moist air prevented tornadoes from forming. In east and southeast Middle Tennessee, temps were warmer. We did see a few supercells there, but luckily, no tornadoes…Golf ball size hail is bad enough!