F1 tornado, Marshall and Bedford counties, Tennessee, April 3, 1974

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F1

Date

April 3, 1974

Touchdown

6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)

Path length

26.1 miles (42.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000 to $500,000

Counties

Marshall and Bedford counties

Touchdown point

35.450, -86.850

Lift-off point

35.620, -86.430

Record number

169

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• John Gilliam home at 2057 Bear Creek Pike suffered broken windows with trees blown down around it per the Columbia Daily Herald.
• Kelley Farris and Lillie Farris farm home on Highway 431 lost much of its roof. Barn across the highway was also damaged with sheet metal roofing blown across the road.
• Barn on Kelley Farris farm suffered roof damage with sheet metal roofing blown across Highway 431 (named Highway 321 at the time).
• Barn on Max Winters property at 2025 Carpenter Bridge Rd lots a section of roofing per Columbia Daily Herald.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1974 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

127 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 128 of them

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.