Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 1996

F0 tornado, Covington to Ripley, Tennessee, September 16, 1996

From Covington to Ripley, this F0 tornado ran 16.0 miles across Tipton and Lauderdale counties on September 16, 1996, touching down at 8:25 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $4,000 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
September 16, 1996
Touchdown
8:25 AM CDT (13:25 UTC)
Path length
16.0 miles (25.7 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$4,000
Counties
Tipton and Lauderdale counties
Touchdown point
35.620, -89.730
Lift-off point
35.730, -89.550
Record number
1155

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down several times over northern Tipton and southern Lauderdale counties. A 20'x 60' metal roof was blown off a building in southern Lauderdale county. Some trees and power lines were knocked down as well.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

23 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:02 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:35 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:02 UTC13:35 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 05:46 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

10.6 hours after it, 98 km from the path. September 17, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1996-09-17Temperature 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 -66053, lifted condensation level 687 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 1996-09-17The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
-66053 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
687 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Memphis Nas (NQA), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
12:50 UTC7572.5160° 5 kt1003.7
13:50 UTC7166.56300° 4 kt1004.7-RA
14:50 UTC71.4264.76 3 kt1004.4-RA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 16, 1996

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 164:55 AM CDTF0Lee, MS1.0253$600,000
September 168:12 AM CDTF1Winston, AL2.070$40,000
September 168:24 AM CDTF0Winston, AL4.070$20,000
September 164:28 PM EDTF1Oconee, SC5.0220$200,000
September 164:40 PM EDTF2Anderson, SC6.04402$3.0 million
September 164:45 PM EDTF1Anderson, SC0.3220$1.0 million
September 164:57 PM EDTF1Anderson, SC5.0220$1.0 million
September 165:03 PM EDTF0Greenville, SC2.0220$10,000
September 166:16 PM EDTF2Sumter, SC1.5150$70,000
September 166:35 PM EDTF0Cleveland, NC0.1180$1,000
September 166:40 PM EDTF0Florence, SC0.110
September 166:45 PM EDTF0Florence, SC1.010
September 166:05 PM CDTF1Bee, TX2.025
September 167:30 PM EDTF0Marion, SC4.010
September 168:10 PM EDTF0Robeson, NC3.010
September 169:20 PM EDTF2Sampson, NC1.4100$200,000
September 169:53 PM EDTF1Fulton, GA0.175$500,000
September 168:54 PM CDTF0Cleburne, AL2.080$40,000
September 1611:12 PM EDTF1Duplin, NC2.0100$40,000
September 1612:00 AM EDTF2Lenoir, NC1.01001$1.0 million
September 1612:05 AM EDTF1Lenoir, NC1.01001$1.0 million
September 1612:30 AM EDTF1Craven, NC0.575$20,000

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.