EF2 tornado, Lois to Normandy, 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

6:13 AM CDT (11:13 UTC)

Lifted

6:16 AM CDT (11:16 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

Crop damage

$18,000

Counties

Moore and Bedford counties

Touchdown point

35.400, -86.274

Lift-off point

35.420, -86.250

Record number

1104270513-01

A powerful storm system roared across the Southeast United States on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. This storm system would be responsible for one of the largest and deadliest tornado outbreaks to ever impact much of the southeastern region.||The powerful storm system that affected the National Weather Service, Huntsville service area would actually occur in three separate waves of severe weather that day. The first occurred during the early morning hours of April 27, 2011 roughly between the hours of 2 AM and 8 AM CDT, while the second occurred during the late-morning to early afternoon period. The third and most devastating wave occurred during the afternoon hours on Wednesday, with some of the most violent and destructive tornadoes to affect the central Tennessee Valley area in recent decades.||While the majority of the analysis and survey work conducted by the National Weather Service, Huntsville and its partners have been completed, there will undoubtedly be countless research studies conducted by both academia and operational personnel in order to further evaluate and understand the complex processes associated with this near unprecedented severe weather outbreak.

During the early morning hours on Wednesday, April 27th, twelve tornadoes occurred across Middle Tennessee. Seven of these were EF0 tornadoes and five of these were EF1 tornadoes. Numerous thunderstorm wind damage events, along with several flash flooding events, occurred across the mid state also. This severe weather outbreak was the result of a very unstable airmass across Middle Tennessee ahead of a strong frontal system, with a warm front positioned near the Tennessee/Alabama border. As this frontal system pushed across the area through the remainder of the morning through the early evening hours, several thunderstorm wind and flash flood events also occurred as additional severe thunderstorms developed.

As the storm tracked into Moore county there was a wide swath of snapped and uprooted trees north of Lynchburg. In this area, hundreds of trees were leveled. The roofs of some homes were partially lifted and a church was also damaged in this area. Along the far northern reaches of the county (north of Motlow State Community College), a mobile home park sustained significant damage. Two mobile homes were thrown off their foundation with one being rolled. The tornado lifted before reaching the county border. The EF-2 rating is based on power poles being snapped near the ground close to the intersection of highway 110 and 231 and the nature of the widespread tree damage at the start of the track in Moore county.

This tornado was part of the same storm complex that produced a longer track EF-2 across much of Lincoln and part of southwest Moore county earlier in the morning. ||A tornado of EF-2 intensity produced peak winds speeds up to 115 mph. The tornado touched down along Motlow College Road just southwest of U.S. Highway 41A. The tornado destroyed at least one mobile home on Starbow Lane, rolled others off their foundations, and snapped and uprooted several trees. The tornado also damaged a church on Carr Creek Road. The tornado continued it's path into Bedford County.

An EF1 tornado with maximum winds 90 to 100 mph touched down around 615 am in extreme southeast Bedford County. Damage was centered along Magnolia Lane and Winding Way Road. The damage path in Bedford and Coffee counties was approximately 1 mile long. Maximum path width was 75 yds. Hundreds of trees were snapped along the path.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:51 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:36 UTC and running to 13:00 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 06:10 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 Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:11 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.