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EF2 tornado in Hamilton County, Tennessee

Tornado April 27, 2011 · Hamilton County, Tennessee

EF2

Rating

5.5 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

$1.0M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

Lookout Valley Tornado. A NWS storm survey reported an EF-2 tornado touched down in the Lookout Valley area. The wind speed of 115 mph downed many trees and several homes and businesses were damaged by the tornado.

The wider storm

Favorable atmospheric conditions resulted in a deadly tornado outbreak across east Tennessee on the 27th. The thunderstorms produced more than 50 tornadoes across the east Tennessee area with 32 deaths and more than 200 injured. The tornadoes produced from light to heavy damage to hundreds of homes and businesses. Hail as large as baseballs was also reported.

Began near Tiftona (35.0200, -85.3700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 293385. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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