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EF3 tornado in Fayette County, Tennessee

Tornado February 5, 2008 · Fayette County, Tennessee

EF3
Rating
31.1 mi
Whole path
167 yd
Path width
3
Deaths
14
Injuries
$10.3M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Fayette County → Haywood County → Madison County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 167 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down near Akin Road. Shortly after touchdown, the tornado crossed Yum Yum Road. A man sitting in his truck in a shed was killed when the tornado struck the shed. The truck tumbled at least 40 feet and was severely damaged. Other vehicles were tossed about from the tornado. Substantial damage to large trees in the area occurred as well. The tornado continued northeast and crossed into Haywood County, Tennessee.

The wider storm

A strong low pressure system tracked from Northern Arkansas into Southern Missouri during the evening hours of February 5th, 2008. Supercells developed out ahead of the system during the late afternoon into the early evening. The storms produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. As the supercells moved east during the evening, a cold front moved into West Tennessee. A squall line developed along the front and produced another round of large hail and damaging winds. The front continued to push east into the overnight hours.

Began near Yum Yum (35.3697, -89.3712).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

11 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 82841. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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