Tornadoes are the most dangerous form of severe weather in Tennessee, and the season for strong thunderstorms with the potential to produce deadly funnel clouds is looming large as spring nears.
The National Weather Service’s tornado database shows Franklin, Bradley, Hamilton, McMinn and Marion represent the top five counties in Southeast Tennessee for the number of tornadoes over the past 75 years. Emergency officials say that’s cause for pushing severe weather awareness for 2025’s stormy season. The first day of spring is March 20.
“It’s the time of year to get prepared,” said Jeanie McDermott, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Morristown, Tennessee.
“Chattanooga’s just kind of right on the edge of above normal precipitation,” McDermott said of long-range regional forecasts in a phone interview. “And it looks like for the temperature outlook, you’re in the above normal category. And that’s for March, April and May.”
Those are some of the factors needed to produce stormy weather.