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EF2 tornado in Decatur County, Tennessee

Tornado February 24, 2011 · Decatur County, Tennessee

EF2
Rating
12.2 mi
Whole path
400 yd
Path width
$1.5M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Carroll County → Decatur County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 moved from Carroll County into Decatur County and continued northeast. Major damage was sustained to a mobile home in the Five Forks area. A large grain bin was tossed 50 yards and destroyed and there was minor damage to homes and trees in the Bible Hill area. Several tombstones were also overturned and damaged in Bible Hill. The most significant damage occurred on Blue Bird Circle at the Lick Creek Inlet. Eight homes sustained enough damage to render them uninhabitable along with damage to private boat docks and pontoon boats. A roof to a floating boat dock was lifted off of its foundation and tossed approximately one half mile across the inlet and destroyed. Damage to homes and businesses were estimated at 1.285 million dollars.

The wider storm

A warm front pushed north from the gulf coast and stalled across northern sections of the Mid-South during the early morning hours on February 24th. Widespread showers and thunderstorms developed along the stalled front producing very heavy rain. Late that afternoon and evening a cold front pushed across the Mid-South. An intense squall line developed in advance of the front with widespread damaging winds, hail, and flash flooding across the Mid-South. A tornado also occurred over Decatur County Tennessee.

Began near Bible Hill (35.6800, -88.1867).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 288783. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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