A tornado in northeastern Tennessee near La Follette produced a strong debris signature on Doppler radar imagery around 600PM EDT on Sunday. The tornadic storm occurred as part of an unusually strong severe weather outbreak taking place across the easternmost third of the country this afternoon.

Here's an animated version of the above image, showing the tornado as seen on Doppler radar imagery:

From top-left clockwise, the four images show:

  • base reflectivity (precipitation)
  • base velocity (wind)
  • normalized rotation (brighter colors = stronger rotation)
  • correlation coefficient (dark blue colors co-located with rotation usually = debris in a tornado)

This is the only radar-confirmed tornado so far today. As of 630PM EDT, the NWS reported one confirmed tornado near Johnson City, Tennessee around 615PM EDT, and meteorologists confirmed one weak EF-0 tornado in Wolcott, Connecticut this afternoon.

[Radar images via Gibson Ridge]

UPDATE: The NWS rated this tornado an EF-3 with winds of 140 MPH. It destroyed ten homes.