Name: Tornado in Tennessee, October 18, 2004
Start: 2004-10-18T17:15
End: 2004-10-18T17:16
Location: Tennessee

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: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $15,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Nashville, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 18, 2:10 PM CST, 3 hours 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 18, 2:10 PM CST, 3 hours 5 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Oct 18, 4:30 AM CST, 12 hours 45 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN
530 AM CDT MON OCT 18 2004

TNZ005>011-022>034-056>066-075-077>080-093>095-191030-
BEDFORD-BENTON-CANNON-CHEATHAM-CLAY-COFFEE-CUMBERLAND-DAVIDSON-
DEKALB-DICKSON-FENTRESS-GILES-GRUNDY-HICKMAN-HOUSTON-HUMPHREYS-
JACKSON-LAWRENCE-LEWIS-MACON-MARSHALL-MAURY-MONTGOMERY-OVERTON-PERRY-
PICKETT-PUTNAM-ROBERTSON-RUTHERFORD-SMITH-STEWART-SUMNER-TROUSDALE-
VAN BUREN-WARREN-WAYNE-WHITE-WILLIAMSON-WILSON-
530 AM CDT MON OCT 18 2004

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MIDDLE TENNESSEE.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT
A WARM FRONT MOVING ACROSS THE REGION TODAY COULD BRING A FEW
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TO NORTH MIDDLE TENNESSEE TODAY...AND POSSIBLY
TONIGHT AS WELL. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS MAY CONTAIN LARGE HAIL AND
OR DAMAGING WINDS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY
A FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL MOVE TO AND POSSIBLY ACROSS MIDDLE TENNESSEE
ON TUESDAY. THIS COUPLED WITH A PASSING UPPER LEVEL JET WILL BRING
THE CHANCE OF A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TO ALL OF THE AREA ON
TUESDAY. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS MAY CONTAIN LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING
WINDS.

EVEN THOUGH SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS REMAIN IN THE FORECAST OFF AND
ON WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...THE PROBABILITY OF WIDESPREAD
HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGERS MAY BE NECESSARY
TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY.

07

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:13 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Lawrence

When: October 18, 5:15 PM CST to 5:16 PM CST
Where: Lawrence County, 1 mi NE of Peppertown
Rating: F1
Path length: 0.7 mi
Path width: 200 yd
Property damage: $15,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 35.000, -87.383

A strong F1 tornado demolished a mobile home. One witness in a newspaper account said the tornado picked the house trailer up, lifted it above the treetops, spun it around 3 or 4 times, and then slammed it to the ground with brutal force. Another nearby mobile home which was used for storage was overturned. Several homes sustained roof damage. The tornado was part of a storm complex that produced a tornado in Lauderdale County, Alabama. The tornado moved northeast from Lauderdale County Alabama into Lawrence County, Tennessee. The tornado dropped down on French Road, and continued northeast for 0.7 miles, and ended near the intersection of Highway 227 and Hide-Away Lane. A newspaper article stated that the tornado damaged 8 structures, six of them were residences.

What these are

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 2004 Every state in 2004 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Tennessee, 2004 Warnings in Tennessee, October 2004

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5427587.