EF3 tornado, Flag Branch to Pleasant Hill, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 27, 2011

Touchdown

10:51 PM EDT (02:51 UTC)

Lifted

11:08 PM EDT (03:08 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

15.8 miles (25.4 km)

Path width

1,500 yards (1372 m)

Deaths

6

Injuries

33

Property damage

$8.0 million

Counties

Greene and Washington counties

Touchdown point

36.035, -82.808

Lift-off point

36.150, -82.573

Record number

1104272051-01

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.

Camp Creek Tornado. A NWS storm survey reported an EF3 tornado touched down in the Camp Creek area. It tracked into Washington county where it dissipated. It had a path width of 1500 yards and path length of 16 miles. There were 6 fatalities in the Camp Creek, 3 on Rambo Road, 2 on Ricker Road, and 1 on Tabor road--all within one mile of each other. There were approximately 220 injuries from this tornado. The fatalities included a 58 year old man and his 56 year old wife who died in their home. In addition, a 70 year old man died in his home. A 47 year old man died in his mobile home. A 63 year old man also died in his home. A 47 year old woman died in her home.||The max wind of 150 mph did significant damage in the area including destroying 40 houses, 35 moble homes, 60 structures on farms, and one public building. Over 100 houses received damage.

The deaths

6 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.

1 minute of warning. NWS MRX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:50 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:36 UTC and running to 04:51 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 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.

Bristol/Tri-City (TRI), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:51 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.