EF2 tornado, Cecilton to East Etowah, Tennessee, April 27, 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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 27, 2011

Touchdown

6:28 PM EDT (22:28 UTC)

Lifted

7:02 PM EDT (23:02 UTC)

On the ground

34 minutes

Path length

27.9 miles (45.0 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

4

Injuries

0

Property damage

$650,000

Counties

Bradley, Polk and McMinn counties

Touchdown point

35.080, -84.950

Lift-off point

35.297, -84.511

Record number

1104271628-01

Favorable atmospheric conditions resulted in a deadly tornado outbreak across east Tennessee on the 27th. The thunderstorms produced more than 50 tornadoes across the east Tennessee area with 32 deaths and more than 200 injured. The tornadoes produced from light to heavy damage to hundreds of homes and businesses. Hail as large as baseballs was also reported.

Cleveland-to-Etowah Tornado. A NWS storm survey reported this tornado formed south of Cleveland. The max wind of 130 mph downed many trees and caused EF2 damage to several homes. Four people died in the hardest-hit area. The fatalities included a 42 year old women as well as a 77 year old man both dying in their homes. In addition, a 34 year old women and a 56 year old women both died in their homes. The tornado continued to the east-northeast then tracked into Polk County.

Cleveland-to-Etowah Tornado. This tornado entered the northwest part of Polk County from Bradley County after already traveling over 15 miles. In Polk County, the tornado had weakened somewhat to 100 mph max winds that downed trees and caused some roof damage to homes. It then continued into McMinn County.

Cleveland-to-Etowah Tornado. A NWS storm survey reported an EF1 tornado continued out of Polk county into McMinn county, before it dissipated south of Etowah. The max wind of 90 mph downed several trees and damaged a few roofs on homes in southeast McMinn county. In total, this tornado tracked about 28 miles in three counties.

The deaths

4 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS MRX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:01 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:36 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 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 19:12 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.

Chattanooga/Lovell (CHA), 46 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), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:16 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

209 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 210 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.