Thunderstorm Wind in Trousdale County, Tennessee

Trees were blown down throughout Trousdale County with many roads were blocked and impassable.

A late Spring storm system brought several waves of strong to severe thunderstorms to Middle Tennessee during the afternoon and evening hours on May 27. One supercell thunderstorm developed during the afternoon across Wilson County, then moved east-southeast across Smith, Putnam, White, and Cumberland Counties, producing very photogenic and at times rotating wall clouds along with several reports of hail. Later in the day, two lines of severe thunderstorms called Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS) moved southeast out of western Kentucky across the region, producing widespread wind damage and several reports of large hail. The worst damage occurred across Putnam, Jackson, Overton, Fentress, White, and Cumberland Counties, where straight-line winds up to 95 mph caused major wind damage. In fact, the Putnam County Emergency Manager and Cookeville Mayor both stated this was likely the worst severe thunderstorm damage ever in that area. The second line of severe thunderstorms caused less severe but still widespread wind damage across Humphreys, Hickman, Maury, and Perry Counties. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma stated that each of these two damaging lines of thunderstorms meet their newly updated definition of derecho, or long lived, widespread damaging wind storms that travel hundreds of miles. Due to the widespread wind damage, a Presidential Disaster Declaration was made for Putnam, Cumberland, and Smith Counties in June 2017.