Facebook submitted photo of a destroyed garage building near Lancaster
The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey Friday afternoon and determined that an EF-2 tornado, with maximum winds of 125 mph, touched down Wednesday night in northern DeKalb County, doing considerable damage on a path that led into southern Smith County.
Wednesday was an unseasonably warm day across Middle Tennessee. Forecasters had been warning of the potential for severe weather for several days, and unfortunately, the forecasts were proven correct. In Middle Tennessee alone, four tornadoes were reported. To put that in perspective, there had only been six known tornadoes during the month of December in Middle Tennessee’s history before Wednesday.
One of the tornadoes touched down in northern DeKalb County on Helton Creek, just south of Dry Branch Road. The tornado took an east-northeasterly path from there into Smith County, where it did considerable damage. Maynard Hollow Lane was among one of the areas hardest hit, where a cinder block garage was destroyed, and a log cabin suffered moderate roof damage. The tornado snapped numerous trees in Lancaster before dissipating. The National Weather Service determined the tornado was on the ground for a total of 8.5 miles and had a maximum width of 250 yards, with wind speeds upwards of 125 mph, rating it an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported with the tornado in either county.
The last time a tornado touched down in Smith County was on October 1st, 2012. That particular tornado touched down in the Grant community and was rated an EF-1, with most damage in the form of trees being snapped or uprooted. No injuries were reported with that storm, either.
According to our Smith County Weather partner page, more storms will be possible over the next few days as this unseasonable warm air pattern continues. You can find forecast information on our all new weather section here, brought to you by Smith County Weather. For up-to-the-minute updates during severe weather, you can follow Smith County Weather on Facebook and Twitter.
The following photos were submitted to the Smith County Weather page via Facebook:
