Hail in Pickett County, Tennessee

Facebook photos showed quarter size hail in the Cedar Grove area.

The largest severe weather event of the 2018 summer affected the eastern parts of Middle Tennessee from the evening hours on July 20 into the morning hours on July 21. Several supercell thunderstorms first spread southeastward out of southern Kentucky during the evening on July 20, bringing numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds to the Upper Cumberland. Later in the evening and continuing into the early morning hours on July 21, additional strong to severe thunderstorms developed east of I-65, bringing numerous more reports of large hail and wind damage. Finally, an isolated elevated supercell thunderstorm developed in the early morning hours on July 21 and moved southeastward across De Kalb, White, and Van Buren Counties, dropping large hail up to golf ball size in several areas. In addition to the severe weather reports, these thunderstorms produced copious amounts of cloud to ground lightning, resulting in widespread power outages to many counties in the Upper Cumberland.