Tornado Warning Issued for Decaturville, Perryville as Severe Storms Hit Decatur County

Decaturville and Perryville were under a tornado warning until 12:45 a.m. CDT April 28, while severe thunderstorm warnings also covered Parsons, Scotts Hill and Decaturville as storms moved through Decatur County. The National Weather Service Memphis said the Mid-South faced an Enhanced Risk, level 3 out of 5, with damaging wind, large hail and tornadoes all possible.

The Memphis office says it issues warnings when forecasters have sufficient confidence that a hazardous event is developing, and Decatur County sat inside a warning area that reaches across four states and 55 counties. For local towns, that meant the danger was not abstract. It was immediate, tied to the streets, schools, homes and rural roads that make up the county’s weather network.

Decatur County Emergency Management is the county office responsible for storm coordination, and the county’s emergency-management page points residents to National Weather Service Memphis, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for preparedness information. The page also directs people to Code Red notification sign-up, a reminder that in a county of 11,435 people, counted in the 2020 census, fast alerts can make the difference between moving early and being caught off guard.

The county seat, Decaturville, was established in 1847 and had a population of 867 at the 2010 census. That small-town footprint makes the warning path especially personal when it includes Decaturville and nearby Perryville. Tennessee officials have been pushing that point as spring weather ramps up. On Feb. 12, 2026, TEMA said it was partnering with the National Weather Service to encourage Tennesseans to prepare ahead of severe weather season.

Memphis forecasters have also kept a close local history in view. The National Weather Service archive for the region includes the March 15, 2026 severe-weather event, along with earlier outbreaks on April 2-5, 2025, March 31-April 1, 2023, March 30, 2022 and the April 2011 tornado outbreak series. For Decatur County, that record underscores a hard truth: warnings here are part of a repeating pattern, and the first minutes after an alert can decide how much damage a storm leaves behind.