EF2 tornado in Cumberland County, Tennessee

An EF-2 tornado touched down near the intersection of Highway 127 and Atkins Road in Rinnie where trees were uprooted and a single wide mobile home sustained roof damage. The tornado moved northeast and crossed Smith Road, causing minor roof damage to two homes, destroying two outbuildings, pushing over a power pole, and uprooting approximately 20 trees. Taking an eastward turn, the tornado tracked just south of Beaty Road where more trees were uprooted and two additional outbuildings were destroyed. The tornado strengthened to EF-1 as it continued east-southeast, uprooting dozens of trees on Cold Springs Road and Myatt Creek Road. Entering the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area, the tornado reached its maximum width and peak intensity of EF-2 as it snapped and uprooted thousands of trees across Turner Creason Road, Charlie McCoy Road, and Roy Taylor Road. The tornado weakened as it moved further to the east and crossed John Q Wyatt Road, and is estimated to have lifted along the Morgan County border north of Witt Road. However, the tornado may have continued eastward into Morgan County, and the path may be extended in the future once high resolution satellite imagery becomes available.

From the late evening hours on March 2 into the early morning hours on March 3, supercell thunderstorms developed and spawned tornadoes across southeast Missouri, southern Kentucky, Tennessee, and central Alabama. One of these supercells formed near the Mississippi River in west Tennessee, then tracked eastward across the entire length of the state just north of the Interstate 40 corridor, spawning 10 tornadoes and dropping large hail bigger than the size of baseballs. Seven of these tornadoes touched down across Middle Tennessee, resulting in widespread damage, 307 injuries and 24 fatalities. An additional fatality and 2 more injuries occurred in Benton County in west Tennessee. These tornadoes were the worst seen in Tennessee since the devastating tornadoes of April 27, 2011 across east Tennessee, as well as the Super Tuesday tornadoes of February 5-6, 2008. Total damage estimates from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency across Middle Tennessee reached $1.6 billion.