F3 tornado, Sw of Cleveland, Tennessee, March 29, 1997

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

March 29, 1997

Touchdown

1:30 AM EST (06:30 UTC)

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

50

Property damage

$3.2 million

County

Bradley County

Touchdown point

35.150, -84.900

Lift-off point

35.150, -84.900

Record number

681

In Hamilton county...the tornado first touched down in the Tiftonia community just west of downtown Chattanooga around 1:10 am EDT. As the tornado moved due east across the southern part of the county, 50 homes were completely destroyed. Another 600 homes and one business were heavily damaged. Most of the damage was concentrated in the East Brainerd community. There, about half of the 180-unit Hickory Villa apartment complex was destroyed, and 18 of 23 townhomes of the Hickory Trace complex were destroyed. Two more apartment complexes, Hickory Valley and Ledford Apartments, were severely damaged. Around 20000 homes were without electricity after the storm. Most power had been restored by Monday morning. In Bradley county...the tornado destroyed 5 poultry farms, 4 homes, and 4 mobile homes. Another 45 homes, 16 mobile homes and 3 poultry farms were damaged.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 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.

Chattanooga/Lovell (CHA), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.