EF2 Tornado — Mcminn, Tennessee

2016-11-30 · near Poplar Hill, Mcminn, Tennessee

Event narrative

The tornado developed near the intersection of county road 700 and 705 where some minor tree damage was observed. The tornado maintained its intensity as it paralleled Cedar Springs Road and damaged a covered walkway just to the south of Athens along South Jackson Street. It continued to the northeast with the most catastrophic damage along its path occurring along Old Athens Madisonville Road where a few mobile homes were destroyed. The tornado weakened as it moved to the northeast with mostly tree damage; eventually lifting around the intersection of TN-307 and County Road 350. Two people were killed and twenty were injured as the tornado moved across the county.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level system moved through the Eastern United States late Tuesday into early Wednesday. The associated surface low pressure system pressed north northeast from the Lower Mississippi across the Mid South on its way across the Lower Ohio Valley. While there were reports of damaging straight line wind with some of the thunderstorms generated ahead of the system cold front, the main and concentrated areas of damage were associated with tornadic supercell thunderstorms. The supercell storms developed in an area of strong shear and sufficient; albeit weak instability. Tornadoes formed in a zone favorable to rotating thunderstorm updrafts just north of a warm frontal boundary across the Tennessee Valley of Alabama northeast through Southeast Tennessee. Three tornadoes developed during the early morning hours on Wednesday, November 30th; impacting McMinn, Polk, Marion, and Sequatchie counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4046, -84.6371)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 662288. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.