EF2 tornado, Bumpus Mills to Legate, Tennessee, May 23, 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

May 23, 2011

Touchdown

6:52 PM CDT (23:52 UTC)

Lifted

7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

13.3 miles (21.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$250,000

Crop damage

$12,000

County

Stewart County

Touchdown point

36.550, -87.828

Lift-off point

36.638, -87.615

Record number

1105231752-01

During the morning hours on Monday, May 23rd, severe thunderstorms occurred across two counties in Middle Tennessee. This resulted in a thunderstorm wind damage events in these two counties. Also, a severe thunderstorm occurred during the late afternoon hours this same day in Stewart County, resulting in an EF-2 Tornado touchdown and associated damage across portions of that county.

Damage began near the intersection of Bumpus Mills and Brazzie Dock Roads and was continuous at least 13 miles northeast across Ft. Campbell. The last visible evidence of damage was 1/2 mile east of the Intersection of State Route 20 and Big Rock Road.||The most significant damage, as the result of an EF-2 tornado with winds near 120 mph, was along Cherry Hollow Rd. just northeast of the Big Rock community. Several homes suffered significant roof damage including one with a complete roof loss. An occupied mobile home was totally destroyed with debris scattered at least 100 yards into a field.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:50 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:00 UTC and running to 00:36 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 19:39 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.

Fort Campbell (Aaf) (HOP), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

17 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.