Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2014

EF0 tornado, Kingston, Tennessee, June 10, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Roane County on June 10, 2014, touching down at 5:06 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 10, 2014
Touchdown
5:06 PM EDT (21:06 UTC)
Lifted
5:07 PM EDT (21:07 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Roane County
Touchdown point
35.880, -84.510
Lift-off point
35.880, -84.510
Record number
1406101506-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front tracked through the area during the afternoon hours with numerous thunderstorms developing. As a result many trees and powerlines were downed. In addition an EFO tornado formed near Kingstown with a path length of 0.5 miles and a path width of 100 yards. The max wind was 80 mph.

An NWS storm survey team found a small EFO formed just east of downtown Kingston...and moved to the northeast along a hillside producing a distinct path with hundreds of downed trees. The path length was 0.5 miles with a path width of 100 yards. The estimated peak wind was 80 mph.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:52 UTC and running to 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:52 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchMRX
20:37 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX
20:52 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

9.1 hours before the tornado, 190 km from the path. June 10, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2014-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -82940, lifted condensation level 811 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2014-06-10The 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 117 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-82940 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
811 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 190 km from the path. June 11, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2014-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 237 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 813 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2014-06-11The 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 87 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
237 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
540 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
813 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:06 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
19:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGDecaturMeigs, TNTREES DOWN COUNTYWIDE AND DIME SIZE HAIL
20:41 UTCTSTM WND DMG13 Ene MontereyFentress, TNMULTIPLE TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN
20:41 UTCTSTM WND DMG13 Ene MontereyFentress, TNMULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS FENTRESS COUNTY VIA EMERGENCY MANAGER
21:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGAthensMcminn, TNTREES DOWN ACROSS THE CITY PARK
21:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGKingstonRoane, TNTREES DOWN COUNTYWIDE, REPORT OF TREES ACROSS ROADS AND ONE TREE DOWN ON CAR-NO ONE WAS IN CAR
21:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 50ClintonAnderson, TNESTIMATED WINDS 50+
21:06 UTCTORNADON KingstonRoane, TNA SMALL EFO TORNADO FORMED JUST EAST OF DOWNTOWN KINGSTON...AND MOVED TO THE NORTHEAST ALONG A HILLSIDE PRODUCING A DISTINCT PATH WITH HUNDREDS OF DOWNED TREES. PATH LENGTH WAS 0.5 MILES WITH A PATH WIDTH OF 100 YARDS. E
21:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGWartburgMorgan, TNTREES AND POWERLINES DOWN COUNTYWIDE
21:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGOliver SpringsRoane, TNMULTIPLE TREES AND POPWERLINES DOWN AROUND OLIVER SPRINGS, SPOTTER MEASURED WIND GUST 70+
21:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGLoudonLoudon, TNTREES DOWN COUNTYWIDE
22:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGMadisonvilleMonroe, TNTREES DOWN COUNTYWIDE
22:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGKnoxvilleKnox, TNTREES DOWN COUNTYWIDE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 2014

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 101:44 PM CDTEF1Jackson, AL8.4300
June 107:23 PM EDTEF0Greene, IN0.525

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.