Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2001

F0 tornado, Franklin, Tennessee, February 25, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Williamson County on February 25, 2001, touching down at 1:20 AM 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
February 25, 2001
Touchdown
1:20 AM CST (07:20 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Williamson County
Touchdown point
35.980, -86.820
Lift-off point
35.980, -86.820
Record number
602

What the Weather Service recorded

Trained spotter reported a tornado with trees being blown down on Concord Road and Franklin Rd.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:53 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:20 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:48 UTC06:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOHX
06:53 UTC07:20 UTCTornado 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 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), 00:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 26 km from the path. February 25, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2001-02-25Temperature 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 -60654, lifted condensation level 738 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 2001-02-25The 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 355 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
-60654 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
738 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
355 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
498 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.7 hours after it, 26 km from the path. February 25, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2001-02-25Temperature 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 -74253, lifted condensation level 1434 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 12:00Z on 2001-02-25The 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 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 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
-74253 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1434 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
211 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Nashville Metro (BNA), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:53 UTC6259180° 20 kt281011.2TSRA BR
06:05 UTC62.659170° 19 kt251011.2TSRA BR
06:21 UTC62.659170° 15 kt1010.8TSRA BR
06:32 UTC60.860.8180° 13 kt1011.2TSRA BR
06:42 UTC62.660.8270° 11 kt1012.5+TSRA BR
06:53 UTC5958260° 14 kt251013.2+TSRA BR
07:00 UTC5957.2250° 12 kt211013.5+TSRA BR
07:08 UTC5957.2240° 17 kt241015.2+TSRA BR
07:16 UTC5957.2240° 4 kt241013.2+TSRA BR
07:23 UTC5957.2250° 9 kt1014.2-TSRA BR
07:53 UTC5855 5 kt1014.6TSRA BR
08:27 UTC55.453.6170° 4 kt1014.2-RA
08:53 UTC5553160° 6 kt1014.6-RA

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

The radar

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:21 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 25, 2001

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 2512:40 AM CSTF0Maury, TN0.110
February 251:20 AM CSTF0Rutherford, TN0.110
February 251:30 AM CSTF0Wilson, TN0.110

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.