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.
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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.