EF3 tornado, Lutts to Summertown, Tennessee, December 23, 2015

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

December 23, 2015

Touchdown

6:55 PM CST (00:55 UTC)

Lifted

7:52 PM CST (01:52 UTC)

On the ground

57 minutes

Path length

48.4 miles (77.8 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

Property damage

$4.1 million

Crop damage

$1,110,000

Counties

Wayne, Lawrence, Lewis and Maury counties

Touchdown point

35.135, -87.965

Lift-off point

35.507, -87.238

Record number

1512231855-01

88 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN and NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 157 mph.

• Lutts United Methodist Church destroyed
• Lutts Post Office destroyed
• Hundreds of pine trees snapped
• Photos from Wayne County Now Facebook page

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

An unusually powerful upper level trough moved across the eastern United States on December 23, 2015, spawning widespread severe weather from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Several tornadic supercell thunderstorms developed across northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, which then moved rapidly east-northeastward at up to 70 mph across Middle Tennessee during the evening hours on December 23. These storms produced 4 long-track tornadoes that caused 2 deaths and 7 reported injuries. Only 7 tornadoes had been previously recorded across Middle Tennessee in the month of December from the 1800s through 2014, easily making this the largest and worst December tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee history.||In addition to the tornadoes, several reports of wind damage, large hail, and flash flooding were received. Some of the worst flash flooding occurred in Maury County, where 3 teenagers drowned in a submerged vehicle on Carters Creek Pike.

This strong, long-track EF3 tornado touched down just east of the Hardin County/Wayne County line about 2.5 miles southwest of the town of Lutts. At touchdown, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted before the tornado reached its peak strength about one half mile west-southwest of Lutts along Lutts Road where the tornado reached a width of 800 yards and EF3 strength. A post office and church, both brick buildings, were destroyed along with multiple homes swept from their foundations. Four people were injured here in Lutts. As the tornado continued northeast, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted along its path to where a concentrated area of trees were destroyed about 5 miles north of Collinwood. The tornado continued snapping and uprooting trees until the Highway 64 and Natchez Trace Parkway intersection. At this location, an outbuilding was destroyed along with the roof of a mobile home. Further northeast into Lawrence County along Napier Road, a house was swept off its foundation where 3 people were injured. As the tornado traveled northeast, several homes with roofs completely removed or damaged heavily were found along Linville Road. The tornado weakened as it crossed Lewis County into Maury County where a barn was destroyed and many trees were snapped and uprooted along Joy Road, 2 miles southwest of Mount Pleasant. The total path length of the tornado across Wayne, Lawrence, Lewis and Maury Counties was 48.51 miles.||This is the first tornado on record to occur in Wayne County, Lewis County, and Maury County in the month of December. Lawrence County previously had one tornado in the month of December, which occurred on December 7, 1951. In addition, this was the strongest tornado to occur in the NWS Nashville county warning area since April 10, 2009.

This strong, long-track EF3 tornado touched down just east of the Hardin County/Wayne County line about 2.5 miles southwest of the town of Lutts. At touchdown, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted before the tornado reached its peak strength about one half mile west-southwest of Lutts along Lutts Road where the tornado reached a width of 800 yards and EF3 strength. A post office and church, both brick buildings, were destroyed along with multiple homes swept from their foundations. Four people were injured here in Lutts. As the tornado continued northeast, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted along its path to where a concentrated area of trees were destroyed about 5 miles north of Collinwood. The tornado continued snapping and uprooting trees until the Highway 64 and Natchez Trace Parkway intersection. At this location, an outbuilding was destroyed along with the roof of a mobile home. Further northeast into Lawrence County along Napier Road, a house was swept off its foundation where 3 people were injured. As the tornado traveled northeast, several homes with roofs completely removed or damaged heavily were found along Linville Road. The tornado weakened as it crossed Lewis County into Maury County where a barn was destroyed and many trees were snapped and uprooted along Joy Road, 2 miles southwest of Mount Pleasant. The total path length of the tornado across Wayne, Lawrence, Lewis and Maury Counties was 48.51 miles.||This is the first tornado on record to occur in Wayne County, Lewis County, and Maury County in the month of December. Lawrence County previously had one tornado in the month of December, which occurred on December 7, 1951. In addition, this was the strongest tornado to occur in the NWS Nashville county warning area since April 10, 2009.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:48 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:49 UTC and running to 04:47 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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 Nashville radar (KOHX), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:53 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 2015 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

30 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.