Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2004

F0 tornado, Fisherville, Tennessee, April 22, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Shelby County on April 22, 2004, touching down at 10:25 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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 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
April 22, 2004
Touchdown
10:25 AM CDT (15:25 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Shelby County
Touchdown point
35.170, -89.670
Lift-off point
35.170, -89.670
Record number
38

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down in the extreme eastern part of Shelby county. One house had some shingle damage and second home had a window blown out. A horse trailer was blown about 40 feet and a pickup truck was pushed about 25 feet. Several trees were knocked down.

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
14:14 UTC15:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
14:58 UTC15:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:59 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), 12:00Z

3.4 hours before the tornado, 46 km from the path. April 22, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2004-04-22Temperature 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 -73337, lifted condensation level 584 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 2004-04-22The 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 -99 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
-73337 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
584 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-71 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.6 hours after it, 46 km from the path. April 23, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2004-04-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2009 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 913 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2004-04-23The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
2009 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3251 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
913 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
230 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.5
Supercell composite
13.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Olive Branch (OLV), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
13:40 UTC64.464.4180° 15 kt201011.2
14:00 UTC66.264.4190° 11 kt181011.5
14:20 UTC66.264.4190° 12 kt191011.5
14:40 UTC66.264.4190° 15 kt191011.5
15:00 UTC6864.4190° 13 kt211011.5
15:20 UTC6864.4180° 15 kt231011.5
15:40 UTC6864.4230° 10 kt201012.5
16:00 UTC62.660.8270° 9 kt1013.5
16:20 UTC60.860.8240° 8 kt141013.5
16:40 UTC60.860.8250° 7 kt1013.9
17:00 UTC60.860.8250° 5 kt1014.2
17:20 UTC60.860.8260° 6 kt1014.2

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 22, 2004

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 223:53 PM CDTF0Wagoner, OK1.6150
April 224:01 PM CDTF0Wagoner, OK4.1200$30,000
April 224:55 PM CDTF1Mayes, OK6.460$50,000
April 225:38 PM CDTF0Wagoner, OK1.280
April 225:58 PM CDTF0Muskogee, OK80.080
April 226:02 PM CDTF0Muskogee, OK2.0200
April 226:21 PM CDTF0Seminole, OK0.120
April 227:22 PM CDTF1Washington, AR0.575
April 2210:26 PM CDTF0Johnson, AR13.140

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.