Tennessee, 1971

Tornadoes and Hail in Tennessee, May 7, 1971

May 7, 1971 · 6 events in 5 counties and zones

5 tornado, 1 hail, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
3
Injuries
137
Property damage
$2.8 million
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
6

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

5 tornado, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Weakley

When
May 7, 5:26 PM CST
Where
Weakley County
Measured
1.75 in hail
Coordinates
36.200, -88.780

Tornado, Gibson

When
May 7, 5:45 PM CST
Where
Gibson County
Rating
F4
Path length
4.7 mi
Path width
100 yd
Property damage
$25,000
Coordinates
36.070, -88.780

Tornado, Carroll

When
May 7, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Carroll County
Rating
F1
Path length
24.8 mi
Path width
100 yd
Property damage
$250,000
Coordinates
36.120, -88.480

Tornado, Carroll

When
May 7, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Carroll County
Rating
F4
Path length
28.5 mi
Path width
100 yd
Deaths
3 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries
137 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage
$2.5 million
Coordinates
36.050, -88.700

Tornado, Benton

When
May 7, 6:45 PM CST
Where
Benton County
Rating
F4
Path length
17.7 mi
Path width
100 yd
Property damage
$25,000
Coordinates
35.970, -88.200

Tornado, Montgomery

When
May 7, 9:15 PM CST
Where
Montgomery County
Rating
F0
Path length
0.1 mi
Path width
7 yd
Coordinates
36.380, -87.350

What these are

Hail
Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Tornado
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Tennessee in 1971Every state in 1971This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Tennessee, 1971

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 10110949, 10110950, 10110951, 10110952, 10110953, 10110954.