EF3 Tornado — Mcnairy, Tennessee

2010-05-02 · near Chewalla, Mcnairy, Tennessee

Event narrative

A tornado crossed into McNairy County from Hardeman County. The tornado briefly traveled northeast before lifting near Highway 57. Several trees and power lines were knocked down in the area. This storm would later spawn a couple of tornadoes further northeast in McNairy County.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.0550, -88.7872)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 237690. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.