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EF3 tornado in Hardeman County, Tennessee

Tornado May 2, 2010 · Hardeman County, Tennessee

EF3
Rating
29.6 mi
Whole path
880 yd
Path width
3
Deaths
9
Injuries
$1.8M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Benton County, Mississippi → Tippah County, Mississippi → Hardeman County → McNairy County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado crossed into Hardeman County from Tippah County, Mississippi. The tornado tracked northeast hitting Pocahontas before moving into McNairy County. One fatality occurred in Pocahontas when a single wide trailer was destroyed. Two injuries also occurred. In total, one home was completely destroyed. Thirteen homes sustained major damage with another five receiving very minor damage. Two mobile homes were destroyed with another two receiving minor damage. Numerous trees were snapped and debarked in the area. In addition, power lines were knocked down as well.

The wider storm

An upper level disturbance slowly approached the Mid-South during the evening of April 30th, 2010 as a cold front became stationary to the west. This pattern remained in place through the evening hours of May 2nd, 2010. South to southwest winds pumped warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and created a very unstable atmosphere. Showers and thunderstorms developed in association with the front during the early evening hours and moved east into Eastern Arkansas shortly before midnight. Additional thunderstorms occurred in association with the upper level disturbance. Due to the unstable atmosphere, thunderstorms quickly became severe producing large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding. The severe weather evolved into an outbreak by May 1st and 2nd. Historic rainfall and flash flooding in addition to large hail and damaging winds occurred during the early morning hours of May 1st with several tornadoes occurring during the afternoon hours of May 1st to early morning hours of May 2nd.

Began near Poor (34.9949, -88.8815).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

6 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 237687. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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