EF0 tornado in Rhea County, Tennessee

This tornado formed east of Dayton and moved to the east-northeast. It destroyed one shed, caused light to moderate damage to four barns, and knocked down several trees along its path through rural areas, south of Highway 30. The maximum wind was estimated at 80 mph.

A deepening low pressure system moved northeast from the Mid Mississippi Valley through the Great Lakes initially driving a warm front northward through the Southern Appalachian region during the afternoon. The associated cold front swept across the area late Friday night. A one hundred knot upper level jet positioned over a 50 knot low level jet resulted in a strongly sheared environment. The intense shear and moderate instability produced an atmosphere conducive to long-lived, discrete, supercell thunderstorms. A total of 9 tornadoes ranging in intensity from EF-0 to EF-3 produced widespread damage and nearly 50 injuries to East Tennessee residents in the path of the storms.