NOTE: This blog post is pertaining to the F4 tornado that hit Jackson, TN on January 17, 1999.
The day began not unlike many other mild January days that Jackson has become familiar with lately. The temperature was at 54°F at 7 a.m. that Sunday morning. A strong cold front was on the way keeping skies cloudy for most of the morning and afternoon. This satellite image was taken at 8:45 in the morning.
Temperatures warmed up to 63°F that afternoon right before the Tornado Warning was issued at 6:08 p.m. for Madison county.
It was a fast moving storm! In fact, the maximum wind gust reported at the McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport that day were clocked at 88 miles per hour.
Here's the damage survey report from the National Weather Service...
"The tornado developed 3 miles west of Bemis and tracked northeast across the southern part of the city of Jackson to 3 miles northwest of Beech Bluff. A shopping center suffered severe damage while a nearby funeral home was demolished except for the interior rooms. More than 200 homes were obliterated or heavily damaged while 300 other homes sustained lesser damage. The building housing the school buses for the county was destroyed and 55 school buses were damaged. A high-school baseball stadium was destroyed and the football stadium was damaged. 6 people were killed with 106 people being injured from the tornado. $10,000,000."
While this was well before my time in Jackson, TN I know many long-time residents of the Hub City remember that day 18 years ago very well and Jackson wasn't the only place to have a tornado that night. Parts of Crockett and Haywood counties were hit as well. What do you remember?
I was visiting friends in a home behind where Charles Latham subdivision was demolished. It appeared the vortex had moved to the side and severely damaged the home beside us then jumped the road and took out a brick structure directly across the street from where we were. That was a quick and scary storm. I remember the next morning when we got a look at all the damage his girlfriends car had been moved several inches (almost a foot if I remember correctly) from where she had parked it. Only 2 of the wheels showed drag marks where it had moved to the side.
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