Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee

2004 tornadoes in Tennessee

15 tornadoes touched down in Tennessee in 2004, 22 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2003 2005 The whole country in 2004

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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Tennessee in 2004

March 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 5	11:35 PM CST	F0	Franklin	0.2	100

April 22 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 22	10:25 AM CDT	F0	Shelby	0.1	100			$30,000

May 26 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 26	5:30 PM EDT	F1	Hawkins	2.0	50			$30,000

May 30 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	6:45 AM CDT	F1	Grundy	1.0	10			$30,000
May 30	12:45 AM CDT	F1	Giles	0.3	50			$10,000

May 31 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 31	1:17 AM CDT	F1	Moore	6.0	150	$10,000
May 31	1:19 AM CDT	F1	Bedford	0.8	150	$20,000
May 31	3:30 AM EDT	F1	Bradley	7.5	60	$80,000

June 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 13	2:47 PM CDT	F1	Benton	0.1	10

August 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 2	6:00 PM EDT	F0	Bradley	0.3	30			$20,000

August 20 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 20	3:35 PM CDT	F0	Moore	1.0	30

October 18 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
October 18	6:15 PM CDT	F1	Lawrence	0.7	200		$10,000
October 18	8:50 PM CDT	F1	Dyer	0.5	100	1	$1.0 million
October 18	9:12 PM CDT	F1	Henry	8.3	300	1	$800,000

October 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
October 19	3:15 PM CDT	F0	Madison	0.5	25			$1,000

Crossed into Tennessee

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into Tennessee. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	12:55 AM CDT	F1	Lincoln, AL to TN	23.5	150			$70,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Tennessee since 1950 Warnings in force in Tennessee The live radar over Tennessee

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.