Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 1989

F0 tornado, Tipton County, Tennessee, June 4, 1989

This F0 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Tipton County on June 4, 1989, touching down at 9:05 PM CDT and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 4, 1989
Touchdown
9:05 PM CDT (02:05 UTC)
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
17 yards (16 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Tipton County
Touchdown point
35.400, -90.000
Record number
441

The warnings

36 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:29 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:29 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningMEG

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:18 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

2.1 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. June 5, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1989-06-05Temperature 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 -56719, lifted condensation level 3601 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1989-06-05The 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 75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-56719 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3601 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

9.9 hours after it, 64 km from the path. June 5, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1989-06-05Temperature 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 -99664, lifted condensation level 3592 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1989-06-05The 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 35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-99664 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3592 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1989 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 4, 1989

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 42:18 AM CDTF1Martin, TX8.5200
June 42:30 AM CDTF1Martin, TX4.0140
June 42:56 AM CDTF0Martin, TX3.0100
June 43:52 AM CDTF0Dawson, TX1.560
June 45:00 PM EDTF1Dare, NC0.1201$50,000 to $500,000
June 45:37 PM CDTF0White, AR1.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 46:28 PM CDTF0Cross, AR0.517
June 46:45 PM CDTF0Crittenden, AR3.020$5,000 to $50,000
June 47:30 PM CDTF2Shelby, TN7.0100$50,000 to $500,000
June 48:00 PM CDTF1Shelby, TN2.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 48:15 PM CDTF0Fayette, TN0.917$50 to $500
June 48:45 PM CDTF1Haywood, TN1.5332$500 to $5,000

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.