Supercell roared through Campbell County and nine other counties

It spawned a tornado in Morgan County and this thunderstorm, a supercell, lasted for hours

By Jim Freeman

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Not long after 5pm Tuesday, the tracking of a strong thunderstorm began in Morgan County. Soon it appeared like a tornado to me on live Doppler Radar. The National Weather Service has yet to deem it was a tornado.

It left damage in Sunbright and didn’t quit there. For the next several hours, I tracked this supercell thunderstorm across portions of 10 counties, including Campbell. If the environment is favorable, and it was, supercell thunderstorms can last for several hours, and this one did, for more than three hours.

It followed a northeasterly path from Morgan County to Scott to Campbell and Claiborne Counties in Tennessee. In Kentucky, it ripped through Bell, Harlan, Letcher, Perry and Pike Counties. Wise County, Virginia, was also in its path.

Around 8:30pm, more than 200 miles later, (four hours in a car), it finally faded from the radar just south of Pikeville, Kentucky. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 04/03/2024-6AM)