Mark Zaleski/APĪs of Sunday afternoon, there were more than 35,000 reports of power outages across the state, according to the monitoring website. 10, 2023, Clarksville, Tennessee, where residents and emergency workers are continuing the cleanup from severe weekend storms. Montgomery officials reported 62 patients were treated at medical facilities.Ī truck lies on its side beside damaged homes on Sunday, Dec. There are currently 25 displaced people at shelters and the number is expected to increase, he added. An EF2 tornado hit Madison and nearby Hendersonville with peak winds of 125 mph, according to a preliminary survey by the weather service.įirst responders responded to more than 400 calls overnight, Nashville Fire Chief William Swann said. The tornado that devastated Clarksville over an 11-mile path was of EF3 intensity with peak winds of 150 mph, the National Weather Service in Nashville said Sunday in a storm survey.Īnother three people were confirmed dead in Madison, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, emergency management officials said Saturday night. In this case, all of the outside walls were destroyed.Tennessee officials are assessing the damage after tornadoes and strong thunderstorms roared across the state Saturday, leaving at least six people dead, more than 50 injured, multiple buildings destroyed and power outages.Īt least three people died, including a child, after a tornado struck the Clarksville area of Montgomery County in northern Tennessee, officials said Saturday night. The tornado damage from Coweta county, shown below, is an example of the importance of moving into an interior room. If you can safely get noticeably lower than the level of the roadway, exit your car, and lie in that area, covering your head with your hands.Put your head down below the windows, covering it with your hands and a blanket if possible. Stay in your vehicle with the seat belt on.Now you have the following options as a last resort: If flying debris occurs while you are driving, pull over and park.Immediately get into a vehicle, buckle your seat belt and try to drive to the closest sturdy shelter.If you are caught outdoors and a basement or sturdy building is unavailable:.Abandon mobile homes and go to the nearest sturdy building or shelter immediately.If the above is not available, more to a small, windowless interior room or hallway on the lowest level.Move to an underground shelter, basement or safe room.Tornadoes can develop rapidly so be prepared to act quickly! The preparedness guide for thunderstorms, tornadoes and lightning suggests the following safety rules for tornadoes: It is important to have a safety plan before you need to act. The two most recent major supercell outbreaks in north or central Georgia was during the Palm Sunday Tornadoes of March 27,1994 and the Southeast Tornado Outbreak of April 27-28, 2011. Supercells may produce strong, violent tornadoes, or several tornadoes over a period of several hours. When conditions are favorable, tornadoes will be produced.

This very severe, long-lived thunderstorm contains circulation aloft (mesocyclone) that grows upward through the storm and downward toward the ground.

An unstable airmass promotes the development of strong updrafts, while wind shear will further increase the strength of the updraft, and promotes the rotation from which tornadoes are produced.Īll thunderstorms have the potential to produce tornadoes, but the type of storm that is most commonly tornadic is the supercell. The key atmospheric ingredients that lead to tornado potential are instability - warm moist air near the ground, with cooler dry air aloft and wind shear - a change in wind speed and/or direction with height. Strong tornadoes last for twenty minutes or more and may have winds of up to 200 mph, while violent tornadoes can last for more than an hour with winds between 200 and 300 mph! These violent tornadoes are rare in occurrence. Some tornadoes intensify further and become strong or violent. Usually a weak tornado will last for just a few minutes and have wind speeds of 100 mph or less. The majority of tornadoes which occur are classified as a weak tornado. They are ranked using the Enhanced Fujita scale. Visibility is often affected by terrain constraints in Georgia as well.Īs stated before, tornadoes come in different shapes and sizes. However, in the southeast, and especially Georgia, tornadoes are often hidden in large swaths of rain and hail, making them very difficult to see and even more dangerous. As seen below, tornadoes come in different sizes, many as narrow rope-like swirls, others as wide funnels.Īcross the Plains, tornadoes can be seen from miles away. Tornadoes develop when wind variations with height support rotation in the updraft. Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air, extending from a thunderstorm, which are in contact with the ground.

Tornado and lightning storm