Severe Thunderstorm Warnings Hit Decatur County With 60 MPH Winds, Hail

Severe thunderstorm warnings from the National Weather Service in Memphis swept through Decatur County and neighboring west Tennessee counties on the evening of March 15 into early March 16, carrying threats of 60 mph wind gusts and nickel-size hail that NWS warned would bring damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

At 9:17 PM CDT, radar showed severe thunderstorms stretched along a line from 9 miles north of Parsons to near Corinth, Mississippi, pushing east at 45 mph. NWS Memphis issued at least two separate severe thunderstorm warnings covering the region: one for Benton County and northeastern Decatur County, active until 9:30 PM CDT, and a second covering Chester, Decatur, Hardeman, Henderson, and McNairy counties, also until 9:30 PM CDT. The agency cited radar as the basis for both warnings and listed the hazards bluntly: "60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail."

The storm system was broad enough to place a stretch of Interstate 40 in Tennessee between mile markers 103 and 113 inside the warning area. Communities across the five-county zone included Lexington, Henderson, Selmer, Parsons, Adamsville, Wildersville, Parkers Crossroads, Jacks Creek, and Darden, along with Natchez Trace State Park, Natchez Trace State Forest, and Big Hill Pond State Park. A separate impacted locations list included J P Coleman State Park, Pickwick Landing State Park, Pickwick Dam, Walnut Grove, Pineflat, Lowryville, Doskie, Pollards Mill, Bruton Branch, Center Star, Winn Springs, Olive Hill, Olivehill, and Red Sulphur Springs.

A Tornado Watch remained in effect until 11:00 PM CDT for northeastern Mississippi and west Tennessee, though no tornado touchdowns or confirmed rotations were reported in the available information. Local stations WOPC FM and NewsChannel 5 urged residents to take shelter. The standard NWS guidance for the warnings directed people to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.

As of the initial reports, no major damage had been confirmed, though the NWS warning explicitly cautioned that damage to roofs, siding, and trees was expected given the forecast wind speeds.

The severe weather was not the end of the night's hazards. A Wind Advisory covering Decatur County and 20 other west Tennessee counties, including Benton, Chester, Hardeman, Henderson, and McNairy, extended until 7 AM CDT Monday, with west winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts reaching 45 mph. Behind the storm system, temperatures were forecast to plunge sharply: a Freeze Warning called for lows as cold as 16 degrees from 4 AM to noon Monday, and a Freeze Watch through Tuesday morning carried the possibility of temperatures dropping to 14 degrees across portions of west Tennessee, East Arkansas, North Mississippi, and Southeast Missouri.