EF1 tornado, Ruthville to Lynnville, Tennessee, April 25, 2011

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 25, 2011

Touchdown

11:45 PM CDT (04:45 UTC)

Lifted

12:03 AM CDT (05:03 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

15.4 miles (24.8 km)

Path width

225 yards (206 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

Counties

Weakley and Graves counties

Touchdown point

36.396, -88.805

Lift-off point

36.543, -88.603

Record number

1104252245-03

A stationary front remained draped across Southern Missouri into Western Kentucky from April 24th, 2011 into April 25th, 2011. A very warm and unstable atmosphere was in place across the Mid-South ahead of the front. A low pressure system developed along the front and interacted with the unstable environment which helped produce several rounds of severe storms into the evening of April 26th, 2011. As a result of the severe storms, the front sank south during the early morning hours of April 27th, 2011 as a secondary low pressure system developed along the front. As a result, another round of severe storms fired during the afternoon hours ahead of the low pressure center. Additional severe storms fired along the trailing cold front. Tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding occurred as a result of the severe storms. Heavy rain from the continuous rounds of severe weather eventually resulted in record river flooding on a number of rivers in the region.

A pronounced mid-level shortwave trough and associated 70 to 80 knot mid-level jet progressed northeastward from the southern Plains across Arkansas and Missouri. An associated surface low developed northeastward from southwest Missouri toward northwest Illinois. A gradual increase in the warm sector southerly low level jet occurred as the surface low deepened. Increasing vertical wind shear in the moist and unstable warm sector resulted in organized severe storms. The storms were organized into bowing lines with embedded supercell structures.

A tornado touched down near Pierce Road, northeast of Martin and traveled northeast across Ralston Road. Many trees sustained damage or were uprooted. The tornado moved along Simpson Road, knocking over more trees. Near the intersection of Simpson Road and Whispering Hills Road, more trees were uprooted. Further to the northeast, additional trees were uprooted and large branches were knocked down along Chestnut Glade Road. An open hay barn was partially destroyed near the intersection of Chestnut Glade Road and Morrison Road. Farther north, more trees were uprooted at the intersection of Mansfield Road and Morrison Road. Additional tree limbs were knocked down along Wall Road and Wall Loop Road. The tornado continued northeast and produced minor damage to a house along Roberts Road. More trees were knocked down as well. Continuing northeast, the tornado crossed into Kentucky along State Line Road and continued moving to the northeast.

This tornado crossed into Graves County from Weakley County, Tennessee. The tornado initially paralleled the state line, where mainly tree damage occurred. Along Kentucky Highway 303, a home was damaged. The side porch was lifted. A gazebo and a playhouse were destroyed. A garage at the north end of the house sustained major damage. Small portions of nearby grape vines were impaled in the roof of the porch, and a stick was impaled in the house. As the tornado moved northeast, mainly tree damage occurred, with uprooted trees and large limbs down. There was some tree damage south of the path near Lynnville, which was from straight-line winds. Peak winds were estimated near 100 mph. The average path width was 75 yards.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:50 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:32 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), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:47 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 2011 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

45 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.