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During the Tornado outbreak of April 15-16, 1998, a large and destructive tornado would tear through rural areas around Lawrence County, west-northwest of Lawrenceburg in the state of Tennessee. Despite being one of two F5 tornadoes during the season, it was overshadowed in media coverage by a few other tornadoes during the outbreak, most notably an F3 rated tornado near Nashville, Tennessee as well as some other tornadoes in the following years. Due to this, it is often dubbed as the "forgotten F5".^[1][2][3]

Across it's 19.3 mile (31.1 km) path of destruction, many fine, sometimes brick homes were leveled. Along with these were trees that were uprooted and dozens of powerlines that were blown off. Ground scouring was observed and some vehicles were thrown a long distance. No fatalities were reported but 21 were left injured along its path. Around $4 million (1998 USD) worth of damage was left.^[1]

Meteorological Synopsis

A large scale meteorological pattern at 1500 UTC on April 16th led to an ideal environment for a severe weather outbreak across Middle Tennessee, with a jet stream coupling, leading to vertical motion fields drastically intensifying in the mid and upper levels as a result of an ascending branch of a 110-knot polar jet streak merging with the ascending branch of a 120-knot subtropical jet streak directly over Middle Tennessee. Ageostrophic flow from these jet dynamics intensified the 850 mb low-level jet to 45 knots and backed low-level winds. This significantly boosted vertical wind shear while simultaneously pushing 850 mb dew points up to a very moist 18°C.

A negatively tilted 500 mb trough moved across west Tennessee and western Kentucky. The pronounced diffluent region between the two jet branches created a signature known historically as a highly prolific outbreak pattern. A strong 700 mb southwesterly dry air intrusion (<50% relative humidity) moved over the region. This dry air aloft capping a moist lower boundary layer increased CAPE to 1600 J kg⁻¹.^[3]

Tornado Summary

After the Wayne County F4 dissipated, at 22:30 UTC, a tornado organized and immediately left far-eastern Wayne County into Lawrence County. It would continue for 19.3 miles (31.1 km) over rural areas, not directly impacting any town before dissipating northeast of Ethridge.^[3] During this time, a few fine and brick homes with anchor bolts would be completely obliterated and cleanly swept off of foundations, scattering debris into fields. Dozens of trees would be blown down and uprooted, with trees stripped off their bark after getting struck by flying debris. Aftermath pictures documented downed trees and debris scattered from nearby structures that were obliterated and sometimes damaged vehicles.^[1] Seventy-five utility poles were also blown down. Besides tracking northwest of Lawrenceburg, the tornado also moved north of Deerfield and south of Summertown. Over 100 homes suffered damage across Lawrence County and the tornado reached a maximum width of around 1760 yards at one point.^[1] A 200 yard wide path of pasture land had the grass "pulled out", leaving clumps of dirt that was dug out of the ground.

Outside of official documentation, one truck was rumored to have been picked up in one of the hardest impacted areas and carried by the tornado for over 20 miles (32 km), though this is unconfirmed. The tornado was preceded by an outflow boundary that likely intensified the storm's low-level mesocyclone. The supercell exhibited classic features, including a hook echo and intense rotation after emerging from a radar range-folded area. A one-ton pickup truck was thrown over 100 m (330 ft).^[3] After the F5 dissipated, another F4 tornado would track through Lawrence, Giles, and Maury Counties in Tennessee.^[1]

The tornado injured 21 people but did not cause the death of any person directly or indirectly,^[1][2] though several livestock were killed.^[1] People who were in the path took shelter in their basements, closets, and/or bathrooms, which likely decreased the human impact from this tornado. This tornado was the second rated F5 of the year after the 1998 Oak Grove-Birmingham tornado, also becoming the only officially rated F5 tornado in Tennessee's history.^[3] Official Storm Prediction Center (SPC) records initially listed three other tornadoes in the state with the F5 category, one from Fayette County in March 21, 1952, and two from the 1974 Super Outbreak in Lincoln and Franklin Counties. The NWS Nashville office later conducted an in-depth review of the historical data and damage surveys and proved that none of those three older storms actually exhibited true "incredible" F5-level damage. The NWS later worked with the SPC to downgrade all previous storms down to F4 ratings. Another F5 rated tornado in Tennessee occurred in Pinson back in March 11, 1923 but formed decades before the Fujita Scale was invented or when official records were tracked.^[3] Damage costs from this tornado was $4 million in 1998 USD.^[1]

See also

• Tornado outbreak of April 15–16, 1998 - The outbreak the tornado was apart of
• Tornadoes of 1998
• 1998 Nashville tornado - Another notable tornado from that day

References