Multiple rounds of severe storms striking Tennessee and surrounding areas

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Tony Laubach was reporting live from Tennessee on the evening of April 2, tracking reported tornadoes as storm cells erupted across the region.

Transcript

00:00I'm going to begin our live coverage this hour

00:01with Tony Laubach, he and Ed Grubb are joining us now

00:04live from Jackson, Tennessee.

00:06Tony, I know that one of these storms that

00:08moved through this area recently was described

00:10as an observed tornado.

00:12What have you seen?

00:16Well, Jeff, we're coming in on the back side of this storm

00:19here from the west.

00:20We're just about to get on Interstate 40.

00:23We're about half a mile from doing that.

00:25We were on the western storm, the western tornadic storm,

00:29about 30 minutes ago, which looked quite impressive.

00:31But that storm actually weakened and pretty much,

00:34for the most part, died out.

00:35So amazingly, we were able to backtrack to the west

00:39or backtrack to the east.

00:40And we are now about to get on 40

00:42to get back in front of this tornadic cell that just

00:45went over the Jackson area.

00:47There was a public confirmed tornado with this.

00:50Always anxious to see what falls behind on that one right now.

00:55Certainly haven't seen any evidence crossing

00:58where that hook went through here of anything

01:01that looks remotely tornadic.

01:03But we are tracking the storm right up along 40.

01:06Like I said, we are about to get on Interstate 40.

01:08And that is going to be our deployment strategy here

01:11for this.

01:11And of course, you were showing just a plethora

01:15of cells that are going to be coming up from the south.

01:19A lot of those right now in northern Mississippi.

01:21Those storms we are also watching

01:23with some vested interest as these storms are moving.

01:26At a pretty good clip, we talk about 40 to 50 miles per hour.

01:29Meaning you don't really get to stay with these storms

01:31very long.

01:32And the further east we get into Tennessee,

01:34the worse the terrain and the road network

01:36actually ends up getting.

01:38So right now, we're in some traffic here, obviously,

01:41in an urban area at 5 o'clock.

01:44So we've got a little bit of rush hour traffic

01:45to tend with here.

01:46That is our plan right now.

01:48We're going to get on eastbound 40, get back up in front

01:50of this tornadic cell just to the east of Jackson, Tennessee.

01:55And we're going to keep an eye on this for as long as we can.

01:58And then we'll turn our attention to the storms

02:00to our south and to our west here

02:02over the next couple hours.

02:04It's going to be a busy night.

02:05We're expecting multiple rounds.

02:07We talk about once the storm passes your area,

02:10you're in the clear.

02:11That will not be the case tonight, at least early on

02:13here.

02:14So Jackson, just because you've gotten out of this storm,

02:17you've got more coming from the south and more from the west.

02:20So multiple rounds of severe weather.

02:21It's going to be a very busy night tracking cells

02:24across western Tennessee for us.

02:26All right, Tony.

02:27Thank you so much for that update.

02:28Let us know whenever you get closer to that storm.

02:29It is pretty much going to be riding I-40 up

02:31towards Nashville.

02:32So the quicker you can get eastbound and down on I-40.

02:36Yeah, just let us know whenever you get that storm in view.

02:41We will.

02:42Don't you worry.

02:43So we're going to go and take a live look here at radar.

02:45So that's a live view from Jackson, Tennessee.

02:48And we can show you here on radar exactly

02:49where that is happening.

02:51So right now, that is a confirmed.

02:53It was earlier a confirmed tornado.

02:55But now we have a tornado warning in effect right now

02:57for pretty much the northern portion of I-40,

03:00just to the northeast there of Jackson.

03:01And that's where Tony is going to be heading.

03:03Now, this storm right here, the good news

03:05is, at least for the Nashville areas,

03:07that this storm is going to pass.

03:09The current track is going to take it well

03:11to the north of Nashville.

03:12But if you're in Clarksville, if you're in Portland,

03:15in Gateland, any one of those, or Gallatin,

03:17any one of those areas, hey, take

03:19your immediate tornado precautions.

03:20The storm's moving in.

03:21These storms are moving relatively quick.

03:23They're moving about 40, 50, up to 60 miles an hour.

03:26So as far as the overall threat for taking preparedness

03:31to take your precautions and shelter,

03:33you're not going to have as much time

03:35as you would probably initially like.

03:36But that's the storm that's going

03:38to be primarily passing, it looks like,

03:40to the north of the Nashville area.

03:41But as we zoom out just a little bit,

03:43that's not the only game in town.

03:44We also have all these little isolated,

03:47discrete thunderstorms here to the south.

03:49And any one of those thunderstorms

03:51could also produce tornadoes.

03:53Because with all these storms, they

03:55have all these inbound winds to produce low-level rotation.

03:59So all these storms are going to be moving in.

04:01So if you're in central Tennessee,

04:03expect severe weather here as we head into this evening.

04:05Because this is going to be the kind of weather setup

04:08that we are tracking here.

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