Spring thunderstorm blitzes through Chattanooga, damages homes, causes outages

Severe Storms tile
Severe Storms tile

A spring thunderstorm that blitzed through the region early Saturday night damaged homes, felled trees and dropped power lines, causing significant outages in some areas.

Three Signal Mountain homes were damaged by falling trees including one on the 600 block of Dunsinane Road that plunged through a family's living room around 7:30 p.m.

No injuries were reported in that home or two others that sustained minor roof damage on the 200 block of Sunnybrook Trail and on the 700 block of Danbury Drive.

Significant outages were reported on Signal Mountain and the surrounding area, according to an online EPB power outage map. Red Bank and Hixson were experiencing moderate outages and wires are down throughout Hamilton County.

At 7:30 p.m. a Hamilton County dispatcher also confirmed crews were responding to a boating accident near Linwood Circle off of Lee Pike. The condition of the people involved in the accident was unknown.

Andrew Pritchett, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Morristown, Tenn. said winds gusted to 50-60 mph and hail as large as ping pong balls was reported in Marion and Sequatchie counties.

He also said Chattanooga set a new record for a temperature high on Saturday by hitting 89 degrees - the prior record for April 29 was set at 88 degrees in 1942.

He said the warm conditions likely contributed to the storm's formation, but that is to be expected this time of year.

"It was kind of your typical severe thunderstorm," he said. "Really it was just kind of a really hot day and the cold convections of thunderstorms is able to form."

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