EF1 tornado, Palmersville to Jones Mill, Tennessee, February 5, 2008

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

February 5, 2008

Touchdown

5:55 PM CST (23:55 UTC)

Lifted

6:02 PM CST (00:02 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$160,000

Counties

Weakley and Henry counties

Touchdown point

36.423, -88.530

Lift-off point

36.468, -88.458

Record number

0802051755-01

A strong low pressure system tracked from Northern Arkansas into Southern Missouri during the evening hours of February 5th, 2008. Supercells developed out ahead of the system during the late afternoon into the early evening. The storms produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. As the supercells moved east during the evening, a cold front moved into West Tennessee. A squall line developed along the front and produced another round of large hail and damaging winds. The front continued to push east into the overnight hours.

A tornado touched down on the west side of Powell Levee Road. The tornado knocked down trees. The tornado then crossed the road and damaged a mobile home and several trees on the east side of the road. The tornado then crossed into Henry County, Tennessee.

A tornado crossed into Henry County from Weakley County, Tennessee. The tornado traveled northeast damaging an abandoned home and several trees on Bethany Road as well as a barn. On Hayes Store Road, a home suffered severe shingle damage and damage to the soffits and trimmings. Five huge oak trees in front of the home were either uprooted or broken off. Two barns at this location also received damage. Several more trees were snapped off across the street. Further northeast on Wiggins-Capps Road, a barn was destroyed, along with several snapped trees. Three more homes were damaged on Highway 69. The first home sustained shingle damage with a large antenna being knocked over by the tornado. The second home lost several shutters with also a large antenna and flag pole being knocked over. The third home lost half of the roof and a barn was destroyed behind the house. At the end of the tornado track, 3 mobile homes suffered damage with two being severe. The first mobile home had roof damage. The other two mobile homes were double-wides and were sitting on blocks. Both shifted about six feet off their blocks. A barn and a 26 X 26 ft. shop building were completely destroyed. The tornado lifted along Jones Mills Crossland Road.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:22 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:14 UTC and running to 06:00 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:40 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.

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:53 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 2008 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

61 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 62 of them

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.