Afternoon heating along a boundary triggered isolated thunderstorms. One of the thunderstorms produced damaging thunderstorm winds.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS MRX wrote it up.
Afternoon heating along a boundary triggered isolated thunderstorms. One of the thunderstorms produced damaging thunderstorm winds.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Morristown, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 5, 1:23 PM CST, 1 hour 17 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 323 PM EDT FRI AUG 5 2011 .SHORT TERM...(TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY)...CAPPING INVERSION HAS BROKEN THIS AFTERNOON AND SPOTTY CONVECTION IS FIRING...MAINLY OVER THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS. KMRX RADAR SHOULD BE BACK UP WITHIN THE HOUR. MORE ORGANIZED CONVECTION HAS BEEN MOVING EAST OVER MIDDLE TN AND THIS ACTIVITY MAY REACH THE SRN VALLEY COUNTIES BEFORE 06/00Z. NUDGED POPS UP FOR THAT AREA...AND KEPT POPS IN CHANCE CATEGORY OVERNIGHT ACROSS THE REGION. SHORTWAVE TROUGH...PLUS WEAK FRONTAL BOUNDARY OVER SRN AREAS AND SURFACE TROUGH TO OUR NW SATURDAY...SHOULD ALL EQUATE TO GOOD CHANCE TO LIKELY POPS FOR SATURDAY. STAYED CLOSE TO PREVIOUS POP AND WEATHER GRIDS...WITH HIGHER QPF GRIDS THAN BEFORE. COVERAGE OF CONVECTION MAY DROP OFF SOME SATURDAY NIGHT...THEN BOTH GFS AND NAM SHOW ANOTHER SHORTWAVE IMPULSE TO INCREASE CONVECTION ON SUNDAY. STAYED BELOW LIKELY POPS FOR NOW ON SUNDAY. FOR TEMPS...MINOR MOS DIFFERENCES ON MINS WERE TWEAKED CONSIDERING AMOUNT OF CLOUDS AND LIGHT SW WINDS FOR SPOTS SUCH AS TYS. HAD TO UNDERCUT THE HOTTER GFS MAX TEMPS EACH DAY...GIVEN HIGHER RAIN CHANCES. .LONG TERM...(SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY)...FADE POPS FROM LOW CHANCE TO SLIGHT CHANCE BY 06Z MONDAY WITH DEPARTURE OF MID SOUTH SHORT WAVE TROUGH. MAINTAINED THE TREND OF LOWER POPS ON MONDAY BEHIND THIS WAVE. MODELS CONTINUE TO SHOW SEVERAL SHORT WAVE FEATURES BUILDING SOUTHEAST FROM THE OHIO VALLEY THROUGH THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY WITH SYNOPTIC FRONTAL BOUNDARY DROPPING INTO THE FORECAST AREA. KEPT HIGHEST CHANCE POPS GOING ON WEDNESDAY WITH BOUNDARY IN PLACE. BY THURSDAY NORTHWEST FLOW WILL HELP TO PUSH THE FRONT SOUTH OF THE FORECAST AREA BUT SOME UNCERTAINTY IN TIMING AND POSSIBILITY OF ADDITIONAL WAVES BUILDING INTO THE AREA. THEREFORE KEPT A SLIGHT CHANCE POP FOR CONVECTION THROUGH EVENING WHILE DROPPING ENTIRELY ON FRIDAY WITH COOL FRONT WELL SOUTH OF THE REGION. MEX MOS WAS UNREALISTICALLY WARM CONSIDERING RE-EMERGENCE OF EASTERN STATES UPPER TROUGH WITH ASSOCIATED ACTIVE WEATHER. WENT A FEW DEGREES BELOW SUGGESTED NUMBERS...ESPECIALLY OVER SOUTHEAST TENNESSEE. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... CHATTANOOGA AIRPORT, TN 74 93 75 95 75 / 40 40 30 40 30 KNOXVILLE MCGHEE TYSON AIRPORT, TN 73 89 75 93 74 / 40 60 40 40 30 OAK RIDGE, TN 73 88 74 92 73 / 40 60 50 40 30 TRI CITIES AIRPORT, TN 69 87 70 89 69 / 30 70 40 50 30 && .MRX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NC...NONE. TN...NONE. VA...NONE. && TG
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 500 AM EDT FRI AUG 5 2011 NCZ060-061-TNZ012>018-035>047-067>074-081>087-098>102-VAZ001-002- 005-006-008-061000- CHEROKEE-CLAY-SCOTT TN-CAMPBELL-CLAIBORNE-HANCOCK-HAWKINS- SULLIVAN-JOHNSON-MORGAN-ANDERSON-UNION-GRAINGER-HAMBLEN- NORTHWEST COCKE-COCKE SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTHWEST GREENE- SOUTHEAST GREENE-WASHINGTON TN-UNICOI-NORTHWEST CARTER- SOUTHEAST CARTER-ROANE-LOUDON-KNOX-JEFFERSON-NW BLOUNT- BLOUNT SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTH SEVIER-SEVIER SMOKY MOUNTAINS- SEQUATCHIE-BLEDSOE-RHEA-MEIGS-MCMINN-NORTHWEST MONROE- SOUTHEAST MONROE-MARION-HAMILTON-BRADLEY-WEST POLK-EAST POLK-LEE- WISE-SCOTT-RUSSELL-WASHINGTON- 500 AM EDT (400 AM CDT) FRI AUG 5 2011 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST TENNESSEE...SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A WEAK FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL SLOWLY DRIFT NORTHWARD ACROSS THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...TRIGGERING ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY THIS AFTERNOON AND A BETTER COVERAGE TONIGHT. A FEW OF THESE STORMS MAY BECOME STRONG TO SEVERE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...WITH THE MAIN THREATS BEING DAMAGING DOWNBURST WINDS...CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING...AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE WEEKEND...WITH A FEW STORMS EACH DAY CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING DOWNBURST WINDS...CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING...AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL. BY EARLY NEXT WEEK...ORGANIZED COMPLEXES OF THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE MID MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY MAY AFFECT THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION WITH A MORE ORGANIZED SEVERE THREAT. RIGHT NOW...IT APPEARS THAT AT LEAST ISOLATED SEVERE ACTIVITY WILL BE POSSIBLE EACH DAY NEXT WEEK. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME DUE TO THE ISOLATED NATURE OF THE EXPECTED SEVERE THREAT. DMG
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 418 PM EDT FRI AUG 5 2011 TNZ098-052100- MARION TN- 318 PM CDT FRI AUG 5 2011 ...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR MARION COUNTY UNTIL 400 PM CDT... AT 315 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A STRONG THUNDERSTORM NEAR WHITWELL...OR 11 MILES NORTH OF JASPER... MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 10 MPH. WIND GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM...ALONG WITH FREQUENT DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. LOCATIONS NEAR THE PATH OF THIS STORM INCLUDE...JASPER...WHITWELL... MARTIN SPRINGS AND POWELLS CROSSROADS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES YOUR AREA...TAKE SHELTER IN A STURDY BUILDING. DGS
The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:39 UTC.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Law enforcement personnel reported a couple of trees downed by thunderstorm wind south of Whitwell.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Tennessee in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in Tennessee, August 2011
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 339546.