Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2000

F3 tornado, Erin, Tennessee, May 27, 2000

This F3 tornado ran 17.2 miles across Houston County on May 27, 2000, touching down at 2:46 PM CDT and reaching 500 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.3 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 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.

The record

Rating
F3
Date
May 27, 2000
Touchdown
2:46 PM CDT (19:46 UTC)
Path length
17.2 miles (27.7 km)
Path width
500 yards (457 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1.3 million
County
Houston County
Touchdown point
36.320, -87.970
Lift-off point
36.320, -87.670
Record number
851

What the Weather Service recorded

The storm complex that produced a tornado in Benton county moved into Houston county and generated a tornado that hit Tennessee Ridge and Erin. The Houston county executive estimated 1.3 million dollars worth of damage. Roofs and walls of some well constructed homes were torn off. Many trees were snapped and blown down along with power lines. The Betty Ligon Pavillion in Erin was flattened. 50 people required shelter at Erin. A storage trailer was moved 50 feet at Tennessee Ridge.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:33 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOHX

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 15:55 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

7.8 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. May 27, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2000-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1998 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 731 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2000-05-27The 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 244 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
1998 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
690 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
731 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
244 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
251 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.2
Supercell composite
12.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

4.2 hours after it, 111 km from the path. May 28, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2000-05-28Temperature 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 -15606, lifted condensation level 1203 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2000-05-28The 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 -97 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
-15606 J/kg
Surface CAPE
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1203 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-97 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-29 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Campbell (Aaf) (HOP), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:55 UTC7769.8240° 10 kt1012.9
18:29 UTC78.871.6270° 8 kt1012.9
18:57 UTC7768260° 7 kt1012.5
19:52 UTC75.269.820° 5 kt1010.8
19:58 UTC75.26810° 6 kt1010.5
20:07 UTC73.468330° 8 kt1011.9-TSRA
20:15 UTC71.668300° 11 kt211014.2-TSRA BR
20:17 UTC69.868270° 19 kt241014.2TSRA BR
20:22 UTC6868260° 19 kt251013.5+TSRA BR
20:32 UTC6868350° 12 kt201011.9-TSRA BR
20:56 UTC686870° 3 kt1012.2-TSRA BR
21:04 UTC6868200° 6 kt1012.2-SHRA BR

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 2000

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 273:26 AM CDTF1Independence, AR3.130
May 2712:47 PM CDTF1Mississippi, AR3.5201$20,000
May 271:24 PM CDTF0Archer, TX0.220
May 271:28 PM CDTF0Archer, TX1.020$3,000
May 272:40 PM CDTF0Jack, TX0.220
May 272:40 PM CDTF1Benton, TN4.9100
May 273:10 PM CDTF0Montgomery, TN0.350
May 275:42 PM CDTF0Fannin, TX0.220
May 276:00 PM CDTF0Hunt, TX0.220$2,000
May 276:20 PM CDTF0Hunt, TX0.320$2,000

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.