EF1 tornado, Newton, Tennessee, April 3, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 3, 2007

Touchdown

9:16 PM CDT (02:16 UTC)

Lifted

9:20 PM CDT (02:20 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$145,000

County

Cumberland County

Touchdown point

35.840, -85.221

Lift-off point

35.852, -85.136

Record number

0704032016-01

Thunderstorms fired up ahead of a strong cold front on April 3, 2007. There were numerous reports of hail and wind damage. One tornado occurred in Cumberland County at 0916 PM CDT. Snow flurries were reported on Good Friday, April 6, and record cold morning low temperatures were common on Easter Sunday morning with readings in the teens and 20s across Middle Tennessee. Nashville Airport had a record low of 23 degrees Easter Sunday morning. A late season hard freeze hit the mid state. Lows temperatures across Middle Tennessee Friday morning were: 18-29 degrees, Saturday morning lows were 13-27 degrees, and Sunday morning lows were from 17-27 degrees. There were numerous damage to the berries, fruit trees, and wheat crops across Middle Tennessee amounting to about $100,000.

Two barns were destroyed on Wilsons Way. The older barn was built in 1902 and was over 100 years-old. One mobile home shifted off its foundation on Dugger Branch Road. One home had lost part of its roof on Clarence Blaylock Road. Numerous trees were snapped and slight debarking was noted on trees along a path length of four tenths of a mile on Thomas Springs Rd. The tornado destroyed a mobile home on Cherokee Drive. A camper and a barn was destroyed at 626 Thomas Springs Rd. Several oak trees were uprooted as well.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:12 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:11 UTC and running to 04:02 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:34 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 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.

Crossville Memorial (CSV), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 131 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:15 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.