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EF1 tornado in White County, Tennessee

Tornado February 29, 2012 · White County, Tennessee

EF1

Rating

17.0 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Death

$710K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

The EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds around 95 mph moved out of DeKalb County into White County near Twilight Lane. A mobile home was damaged and a church steeple was blown off along Browntown Road near Wildcat Road, and two nearby outbuildings suffered roof damage. The roof of a barn was blown off southwest of the Browntown Road and Austin Road intersection, with debris blown for nearly one quarter mile across fields. A nearby home suffered minor roof damage. The tornado lifted just prior to reaching Austin Road.

The wider storm

A strong storm system moving across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys caused scattered strong to severe thunderstorms to develop across eastern portions of Middle Tennessee during the afternoon hours. Two supercell thunderstorms spawned four tornadoes resulting in a total of 3 fatalities and 7 injuries. Numerous other reports of wind damage and large hail were received.

Began near Cassville (36.0114, -85.6422).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Cumberland County 2 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 362597. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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