Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2012

EF2 tornado, Montezuma, Tennessee, April 26, 2012

This EF2 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Chester County on April 26, 2012, touching down at 6:44 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $400,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF2
Date
April 26, 2012
Touchdown
6:44 PM CDT (23:44 UTC)
Lifted
6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.9 miles (3.0 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$400,000
County
Chester County
Touchdown point
35.379, -88.708
Lift-off point
35.357, -88.688
Record number
1204261744-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A stalled front was located across portions of West Tennessee during the late afternoon and evening hours of April 26, 2012. A few showers and thunderstorms developed in response to daytime heating. Some of the storms became severe and produced large hail. One storm became tornadic as it moved southeastward, crossing the stalled front.

A tornado touched down along Highway 225 and Silerton Road near Montezuma and moved southeast for roughly 2 miles. Six homes were damaged with two sustaining significant damage. A roof of a church sustained minor damage. A few farm sheds were damaged as well. A camper and boat was destroyed. Trees were snapped in the area and a few vehicles sustained shattered windows. A cotton module compress was also destroyed. The tornado lifted along Cecil Thomas Road.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:35 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
23:10 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
23:56 UTC00:12 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
01:22 UTC04:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryMEG

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 air that afternoon

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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

11.7 hours before the tornado, 129 km from the path. April 26, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2012-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1264 joules per kilogram, CIN -306, lifted condensation level 757 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2012-04-26The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 216 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1264 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-306 J/kg
Surface CAPE
185 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
757 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
322 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.4
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 129 km from the path. April 27, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2012-04-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2612 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 832 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2012-04-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2612 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2995 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
832 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.9
Supercell composite
-4.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:44 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:38 UTCHAIL 0.75MedinaGibson, TNPEA TO PENNY SIZED HAIL JUST OUTSIDE OF MEDINA.
21:53 UTCHAIL 14 Ese AdairMadison, TNLASTED ABOUT 7 MINS.
22:00 UTCHAIL 0.88JacksonMadison, TNON THE NORTH SIDE OF JACKSON.
22:04 UTCHAIL 0.751 N JacksonMadison, TNPENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED BY THE PUBLIC AT THE INTERSECTION OF OIL WELL ROAD AND THE HIGHWAY 45 BYPASS.
22:45 UTCHAIL 1BemisMadison, TN
22:56 UTCHAIL 1.25BemisMadison, TN
23:03 UTCHAIL 1.55 Nw HendersonMadison, TN
23:15 UTCHAIL 1.755 Se BemisMadison, TN
23:24 UTCHAIL 2.755 Nw HendersonMadison, TN
23:44 UTCTORNADO 2MontezumaChester, TN*** 1 INJ *** A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY TEAM DETERMINED THAT AN EF2 TORNADO OCCURRED NEAR MONTEZUMA IN CHESTER COUNTY TENNESSEE. PEAK WIND SPEEDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 120 MPH. THE PATH LENGTH WAS MEASURED AT A

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 26, 2012

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 267:00 PM CDTEF0Williamson, TN3.81006$75,000
April 267:31 PM MDTEF0El Paso, CO0.320$10,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.