F2 Tornado — Lawrence, Tennessee

1996-04-20 · near Barnesville, Lawrence, Tennessee

Wider weather episode

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.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5544864. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.