Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2006

F1 tornado, Cordova, Tennessee, June 17, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Shelby County on June 17, 2006, touching down at 6:35 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
June 17, 2006
Touchdown
6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Shelby County
Touchdown point
35.180, -89.730
Lift-off point
35.180, -89.730
Record number
644

What the Weather Service recorded

An F1 tornado touched down near Wood Sage Cove in the Franklin Farms Subdivision off Houston Levee Road 1 mile south of Lakeland. This is just south of Highway 64. The tornado then tracked northeast across Tall Hickory Drive and then lifted. In addition to the tornado there was also straight line wind damage in the vicinity. About 20 homes in the Franklin Farms subdivision were damaged. Some homes had roofs partially ripped off. An SUV also had windows broken out of it.

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
23:04 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
23:31 UTC23:51 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. June 17, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2006-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 793 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 907 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 12:00Z on 2006-06-17The 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 -73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 knots.1939Sfc1 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
793 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
846 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
907 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.4 hours after it, 44 km from the path. June 18, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2006-06-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 381 joules per kilogram, CIN -104, lifted condensation level 799 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 2006-06-18The 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 111 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 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
381 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-104 J/kg
Surface CAPE
198 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
799 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
105 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:04 UTCTSTM WND DMGSoutheast MemphisShelby, TNA FEW TREES DOWN
23:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGWhitehavenShelby, TNTREES DOWN
23:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 594 N GermantownShelby, TNIN COMMUMITY OF CORDOVA
23:18 UTCHAIL 15 Se BartlettShelby, TNIN COMMUNITY OF CORDOVA
23:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 635 Se BartlettShelby, TNIN COMMUNITY OF CORDOVA
23:33 UTCTSTM WND DMGLakelandShelby, TNTREES DOWN
23:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 S LakelandShelby, TN3 HOMES DAMAGED ON TALL HICKORY DRIVE...ONE WITH SIGNIFICANT ROOF DAMAGE...WINDOWS BROKEN OUT OF SUV
23:35 UTCTORNADO1 S LakelandShelby, TNAN F1 TORNADO HAS BEEN CONFIRMED IN THE FRANKLIN FARMS SUBDIVISION LOCATED ALONG HOUSTON LEVEE ROAD JUST SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 64. THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR WOOD SAGE COVE THEN TRACKED NORTHEAST ACROSS TALL HICKORY DRIVE

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 17, 2006

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1710:30 AM CDTF0Montgomery, TX1.075$40,000
June 178:21 PM CDTF0Butler, KS0.540
June 178:42 PM CDTF0Elk, KS2.050

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.