When weather impacted the SEC Tournament

Today is the SEC Championship game! While there isn't severe weather expected for the game today, that wasn't the cast back in 2008.

We've talked about in the past how weather has impacts many football games with them being outside, especially leading up to the big game in February, as well as playoff games. However, what we don't see too often is weather affecting basketball games. Even more so, postseason basketball games like in the SEC tournament. Since basketball games are indoors, weather has minimal impact usually on the game itself. However back in 2008, weather made a huge impact on a postseason game in the SEC Tournament, and on thousands of fans in attendance.

On March 13th, 2008, the SEC Quarterfinals were taking place, specifically a game between Mississippi State and Alabama. In 2008, the SEC tournament was held in Atlanta, GA at the Georgia Dome. The game itself was a close one, and with seconds remaining, Alabama hit a 3-pointer that tied the game would force it into overtime.

The game going into overtime kept fans that were already inside, from heading outside into approaching severe weather. Shortly after the game was forced into overtime, a tornado touched down and ripped through just a couple hundred yards North of the Georgia Dome.

Path of the tornado. Image credit: NWS Atlanta

The tornado damaged part of the Georgia Dome while thousands of fans were still inside, but if the game had not gone into overtime, thousands of spectators would've been walking outside as the storm was approaching the Atlanta area.

Image credit: NWS

Image credit: SB nation

The storm tore open a panel on the Northern side of the dome and made bolts and insulation fall down into the arena. Due to the damage from the tornado, the remainder of the tournament was moved to Georgia Tech University's basketball arena.

Image Credit: AP

The tornado went on to do more damage around the Atlanta area including the CNN Center, apartment buildings, and the omni hotel in Downtown Atlanta. After conducting the survey, the NWS in Atlanta rated the tornado an EF2, with max winds estimated to be around 130mph. 30 people were injured and there unfortunately was also a fatality reported. If the game between Mississippi State and Alabama hadn't gone into overtime, then thousands more people would've been outside while this was moving through and those numbers would've likely been a lot higher.