EF2 Tornado — Jackson, Tennessee

2012-03-02 · near Mt Union, Jackson, Tennessee

Event narrative

An EF2 tornado with maximum wind speeds around 125 mph began south of Sims Lane in southeast Jackson County and moved northeast across the Dodson Branch community. A home and outbuilding were damaged and several trees and power lines were blown down on Mabry School Road. Increasing to one half mile wide, the tornado moved across the Dodson Branch community along Highway 135 between Zion Road and Maynard Hollow Road. Numerous homes and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed in this area with 20 minor injuries reported. Hundreds of trees and several power lines were also blown down. The tornado continued northeast across Allen Drive, Plum Hollow Lane, and Smith Chapel Road, damaging several more homes, before entering northern Putnam County.

Wider weather episode

On Friday, March 2nd, as a warm and moist surface based air mass occurred across Middle Tennessee in advance of a strong surface cold front, and a deep upper level trough moved closer to the mid state with strong winds aloft, a significant severe weather outbreak occurred across the mid state starting in the morning hours and lasting well into the evening hours. Multiple reports of large hail occurred across the area, with sizes ranging from penny to baseball size. Several locations reported thunderstorm wind damage. Two tornadoes, an EF1 and EF2 respectively, occurred across the mid state with some funnel clouds being reported also.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.2898, -85.4929)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 367960. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.