EF2 tornado in Smith County, Tennessee

This EF2 tornado touched down on Helton Creek just southwest of Dry Branch Road. At this location, the path width was narrow at 50-75 yards wide but snapped numerous trees and did some minor roof damage to a home. The tornado continued to the east-northeast snapping large trees and doing minor roof damage to a home on Corley Road. As the tornado crossed over TN Highway 264 and Smith Fork Creek it widened to 250 yards. It was here where it produced the greatest damage. The roof and two exterior walls were removed, along with its carport and 2 covered porches. Based on the exterior walls only being toe-nailed in place, it was decided that the maximum wind speed would be reduced slightly to a maximum of 125 mph. The tornado continued east-northeast destroying a cinder block garage and causing moderate roof damage to a log cabin home on Maynard Hollow Lane. At the end of the path, the tornado snapped numerous trees in Lancaster where the path width had narrowed to 100 yards. No damage was found beyond Lancaster.

This is the first tornado on record to occur in both DeKalb County and Smith County in the month of December.

An unusually powerful upper level trough moved across the eastern United States on December 23, 2015, spawning widespread severe weather from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Several tornadic supercell thunderstorms developed across northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, which then moved rapidly east-northeastward at up to 70 mph across Middle Tennessee during the evening hours on December 23. These storms produced 4 long-track tornadoes that caused 2 deaths and 7 reported injuries. Only 7 tornadoes had been previously recorded across Middle Tennessee in the month of December from the 1800s through 2014, easily making this the largest and worst December tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee history.

In addition to the tornadoes, several reports of wind damage, large hail, and flash flooding were received. Some of the worst flash flooding occurred in Maury County, where 3 teenagers drowned in a submerged vehicle on Carters Creek Pike.