EF2 tornado in McMinn County, Tennessee

Harrison Tornado - Segment #4. The Harrison Tornado continued to intensify again as it crossed from Polk into McMinn County. It was an EF1 at 100 MPH when it crossed the county line but quickly elevated to an EF2, and reached its maximum strength only about 1 1/2 miles inside McMinn County as an EF2 at 130 MPH where it caused heavy damage to several rural homes.

The tornado then continued to the northeast slowly weakening, crossed U.S. Highway 411, then started to climb the terrain on the north end of Starr Mountain where it dissipated. This storm went on to produce another tornado in Monroe County.

In McMinn County 37 homes and mobile homes were damaged. Four homes and seven mobile homes were destroyed. Property damages totaled about $2 Million. There were 7 injuries.

This tornado ended in McMinn County, but crossed parts of four counties, had an over pathlength of 41 miles and caused 44 injuries.

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.