TornadoLookup

Home / Tennessee / Lawrence

F2 tornado in Lawrence County, Tennessee

Tornado April 20, 1996 · Lawrence County, Tennessee

F2
Rating
0.5 mi
Path length
200 yd
Path width
12
Injuries
$1.2M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

A strong line of thunderstorms entered middle Tennesee Saturday morning, April 20. The storms moved from northwest to southeast. Some of these storms produced tornadoes, but a significant part of the damage occurred from straight line winds. Many homes...mobile homes and businesses were damaged. Damage estimates from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) was placed at 1.25 million dollars across middle Tennessee during this storm event. The tornado started at Barnesville and then went back up as a funnel cloud. It touched down again at Summertown, Waco and Cornersville. Areas east of Cornersville toward Bell Buckle received straight line wind damage. The distance from Barnesville to Cornersville is about 33 miles. Lengths and widths are estimated at Barnesville, Summertown, Waco and Cornersville. Cornersville was the hardest hit.An eyewitness saw the funnel come down and take the roof off a basement house about 1/2 mile south of Barnesville on Barnesville Rd. The tornado went up as a funnel cloud but came down again later as a tornado at Summertown and did some damaged to 25 homes...2 severe. Trees were uprooted, including a large oak tree and a cherry tree with a diameter of 12 to 14 inches. The tornado went up as a funnel cloud, and touched down briefly at Waco, in Giles county. The tornado damaged a brick structure that was used as a store. The building lost its roof and most of its walls. A mobile home was leveled across the street. Straight line winds appeared to have damaged a cabinet and wood shop business at the junction of highway 31 and highway 129. Storm damage estimate for Giles county is about $400,000. The tornado came down again for the final time at Cornersville, at 0615 CST, and was on the ground for an estimated 1.5 miles. Its width was estimated about 1/4 mile. The tornado started at 1.5 miles northwest of the junction of U.S. Route 31A and Coleman Rd. or 1.3 miles southwest of Cornersville. The tornado damage ends near the junction of Coleman Rd. and U.S. Route 31A. The tornado demolished a mobile home park. 7 mobile homes were totally destroyed and 10 others damage. 7 people were injured in the mobile home park, one critically. Another person was injured in Marshall county. 2 high tension towers were bent in half and telephone poles were snapped along Coleman Rd. The Cornersville School auditorium was damaged, but it was not from the tornado.There were 2 injuries in Coffee county and 2 injured in Bedford county, for a total of 12 injuries from the storm. TEMA estimates of the number of homes, mobile homes and businesses that were destroyed or sustained severely damage from the tornado and the straight line winds for the following counties are in the respective order: Marshall County...5, 10, 14Lawrence County...10, 1. and zero.Coffee County...4, 10, 1.Giles County...6, 2, 2.Bedford County...0, 4, 0.

Began near Barnesville (35.4300, -87.3800).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5544864. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.