Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 1997

F0 tornado, Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, March 28, 1997

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hardin County on March 28, 1997, touching down at 8:17 PM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
March 28, 1997
Touchdown
8:17 PM CST (02:17 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hardin County
Touchdown point
35.050, -88.250
Lift-off point
35.050, -88.250
Record number
116

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down near Pickwick Dam producing little damage.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:17 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:50 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
08:18 UTC08:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
01:27 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningMEG
02:07 UTC02:40 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
02:17 UTC02:50 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 05:53 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

2.3 hours before the tornado, 157 km from the path. March 29, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1997-03-29Temperature 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 -20564, lifted condensation level 2379 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 1997-03-29The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
-20564 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2379 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
183 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.7 hours after it, 157 km from the path. March 29, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1997-03-29Temperature 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 -74623, lifted condensation level 1805 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 1997-03-29The 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 -57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
-74623 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1805 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 28, 1997

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 286:24 PM ESTF1Marion, IN0.173$750,000
March 286:45 PM ESTF1Hardin, KY7.0100$2.0 million
March 286:04 PM CSTF3Hart, KY9.01,200114$1.4 million
March 286:06 PM CSTF0Robertson, TN0.5200
March 287:15 PM ESTF0Nelson, KY0.550$50,000
March 287:22 PM ESTF3Larue, KY2.01,2001$3.0 million
March 286:25 PM CSTF2Green, KY3.0300$20,000
March 287:31 PM ESTF2Larue, KY5.0300$100,000
March 287:41 PM ESTF2Marion, KY3.0300
March 287:05 PM CSTF0McNairy, TN0.110$1,000
March 287:15 PM CSTF2Metcalfe, KY10.020016$3.0 million
March 287:15 PM CSTF3Adair, KY15.05007$1.0 million
March 288:40 PM ESTF1Casey, KY10.050$200,000
March 287:45 PM CSTF2Adair, KY1.0200
March 288:45 PM ESTF1Scott, IN1.0100
March 288:47 PM ESTF1Jefferson, IN9.0100$200,000
March 287:50 PM CSTF0Russell, KY10.050$1.0 million
March 289:17 PM CSTF1Smith, TN1.020$50,000
March 2810:30 PM ESTF0Laurel, KY0.120
March 289:55 PM CSTF2Overton, TN5.94402$250,000
March 2810:28 PM CSTF0Hart, KY0.550$10,000
March 2810:38 PM CSTF0Coffee, TN0.520
March 2811:33 PM CSTF2Sequatchie, TN6.0440$100,000

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.