Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 1976

F2 tornado, Cocke County, Tennessee, February 18, 1976

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Cocke County on February 18, 1976, touching down at 2:07 PM EST and reaching 33 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 10, and did $500,000 to $5 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
February 18, 1976
Touchdown
2:07 PM EST (19:07 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
10
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Cocke County
Touchdown point
35.950, -83.220
Record number
34

The air that afternoon

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.

Athens Municipal, GA (KAHN), 12:00Z

7.1 hours before the tornado, 223 km from the path. February 18, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1976-02-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -8286, lifted condensation level 801 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1976-02-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 259 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8286 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
801 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
259 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
263 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Athens Municipal, GA (KAHN), 00:00Z

4.9 hours after it, 223 km from the path. February 19, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1976-02-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -7760, lifted condensation level 1201 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1976-02-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 80 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7760 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1201 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
80 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1976 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 18, 1976

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 186:50 AM CSTF2Hinds, MS12.72750$500,000 to $5 million
February 187:30 AM CSTF3Leake, MS27.3200127$500,000 to $5 million
February 181:00 PM ESTF1Gilmer, GA3.8100$50,000 to $500,000
February 181:30 PM ESTF1Swain, NC2.040$50,000 to $500,000
February 181:45 PM ESTF1Macon, NC3.850$50,000 to $500,000
February 182:05 PM ESTF1Haywood, NC1.050$50,000 to $500,000
February 182:30 PM ESTF1Buncombe, NC3.050$5,000 to $50,000
February 182:35 PM ESTF1Buncombe, NC0.540$50,000 to $500,000
February 182:45 PM ESTF1Henderson, NC6.030$50,000 to $500,000
February 185:00 PM ESTF1Rockingham, NC5.2332$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

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.

Sources

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