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EF0 tornado in Polk County, Tennessee

Tornado April 12, 2020 · Polk County, Tennessee

EF0

Rating

12.9 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

Injuries

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

This tornado began in Bradley County near Tasso just to the southwest of the New Friendship Cemetery. After crossing Baker Bridge Road in northeast Bradley County it began to weaken with its path was less defined. The tornado crossed into Polk County approximately 2.9 miles north-northwest of Benton, Tennessee. The tornado dissipated near Geren and Upper River Roads where a wider area of tree damage occurred.

The wider storm

A prolonged convective event with deep moist southerly flow in an unstable environment with strong wind shear generated supercell thunderstorms across Southeast Tennessee and Southwest North Carolina. The lengthy period of heavy rain resulted in widespread three to four inch rainfall totals across East Tennessee, Southwest North Carolina, and Southwest Virginia.

Began near Benton Station (35.2132, -84.7013).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Hamilton County 2 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 888675. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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