EF0 tornado, J Percy Priest Res S to Jefferson Spgs, Tennessee, January 17, 2012

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

January 17, 2012

Touchdown

1:27 PM CST (19:27 UTC)

Lifted

1:29 PM CST (19:29 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.7 miles (2.7 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Rutherford County

Touchdown point

36.037, -86.474

Lift-off point

36.043, -86.444

Record number

1201171327-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

As a line of showers and thunderstorms moved across Middle Tennessee during the early afternoon hours on Tuesday, January 17th, thunderstorms reached severe thresholds across Rutherford County, resulting in an EF0 tornado and a funnel cloud reported in this county.

Initial damage was noted at the Lamar Hill Access Area to Percy Priest Lake where dozens of mainly cedar trees were snapped or uprooted. The top of one cedar tree was broken off and thrown northwest into the lake. A nearly continuous 1.69 mile damage path was then noted heading to the east northeast. The most significant damage was along North Lamar Road near Victory Road. Several homes suffered moderate roof damage, a camper was blown on it���s side, and dozens more trees were snapped or uprooted. The last evidence of damage was near the intersection of North Lamar Road and Lamar Hill Road where a couple trees were snapped.

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

31 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:56 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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.

Smyrna (MQY), 6 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 2012 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.