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EF2 tornado in Jackson County, Tennessee

Tornado March 2, 2012 · Jackson County, Tennessee

EF2
Rating
3.7 mi
Path length
880 yd
Path width
20
Injuries
$2.0M
Damage as recorded
$10K
Crop damage
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 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 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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Mt Union (36.2898, -85.4929).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 367960. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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