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EF2 tornado in Moore County, Tennessee

Tornado February 28, 2011 · Moore County, Tennessee

EF2

Rating

16.1 mi

Whole path

600 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$40K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 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

An EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 600 yards initially touched down southeast of downtown Lynchburg. The most significant damage occurred from eastern Moore county. In these locations mobile homes were destroyed, multiple power poles and trees were snapped, and homes sustained significant roof damage.

The wider storm

A powerful cold front and upper level system combined with a marginally unstable, moist and highly sheared environment to produce severe thunderstorms and a tornado. A quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) developed during the morning hours across the mid South and raced eastward at 50 to 60 mph. The storms arrived in southern middle Tennessee around midday, with one storm intensifying into a tornadic supercell. A strong tornado of EF-2 strength tracked from just east of Lynchburg (Moore County) to just northeast of Estill Springs (Franklin County), killing a 79 year old male (near Estill Springs) in his mobile home and injuring four others.

Began near Cumberland Spgs (35.3094, -86.1050).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 291036. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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