Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2015

EF0 tornado, Green Hill to Greenlawn, Tennessee, July 2, 2015

From Green Hill to Greenlawn, this EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Wilson County on July 2, 2015, touching down at 5:22 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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
July 2, 2015
Touchdown
5:22 PM CDT (22:22 UTC)
Lifted
5:23 PM CDT (22:23 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$25,000
County
Wilson County
Touchdown point
36.226, -86.580
Lift-off point
36.230, -86.576
Record number
1507021622-01

The damage survey

47 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 80 mph.

  • Several trees reportedly blown down around log cabin
  • Minor roof damage to house
  • A few shingles blown off roof of house
  • A couple of small softwood trees were blown down

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed across Middle Tennessee during the afternoon and evening hours on July 2. Some of these storms became supercells with low level rotation, and produced 5 weak tornadoes along with several other funnel clouds and wind damage. Showers and thunderstorms spread eastward into the Upper Cumberland region during the evening on July 2 and continued through the night and into the morning on July 3, causing widespread major flash flooding. Dozens of homes and businesses were flooded, and many roadways were washed out and closed. One man was killed in Cumberland County when he drove off a 30 foot ravine created by a washed out roadway.

An EF0 tornado touched down briefly in the Langford Farms subdivision of Green Hill and moved northeast across Peach Orchard Drive, Kensington Drive, Brownleaf Drive, and Wayside Drive. Several homes suffered minor roof and siding damage, and scattered trees were blown down. Max winds were estimated to be 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:18 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningOHX
00:45 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningOHX
01:08 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningOHX
03:00 UTC20:17 UTCFlash Flood WatchOHX

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 19:47 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

10.4 hours before the tornado, 11 km from the path. July 2, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2015-07-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 9 joules per kilogram, CIN -128, lifted condensation level 887 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2015-07-02The 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 -135 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-128 J/kg
Surface CAPE
574 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
887 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-18 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.6 hours after it, 11 km from the path. July 3, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2015-07-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 958 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 811 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2015-07-03The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939Sfc1 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
958 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1990 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
811 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 3 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:21 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
22:15 UTCTORNADO2 Se Old HickoryDavidson, TNEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY IN THE BRANDYWINE FARMS SUBDIVISION ALONG ROLLING MILL ROAD THEN MOVED EAST BEFORE LIFTING ALONG SHANNON PLACE IN THE BRANDYWINE POINT SUBDIVISION. SEVERAL TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN WITH MINO
22:19 UTCTORNADO2 W Green HillDavidson, TNTREES DOWN AND MINOR ROOF DAMAGE IN BRANDYWINE FARMS AND BRANDYWINE POINTE SUBDIVISIONS. DAMAGE APPEARS TO BE TORNADIC. EVENT TIME ESTIMATED USING RADAR.
22:22 UTCTORNADOGreen HillWilson, TNEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY IN THE LANGFORD FARMS SUBDIVISION OF GREEN HILL AND MOVED NORTHEAST ACROSS PEACH ORCHARD DRIVE...KENSINGTON DRIVE...BROWNLEAF DRIVE...AND WAYSIDE DRIVE. SEVERAL HOMES SUFFERED MINOR ROOF
22:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGOld HickoryDavidson, TNSHINGLES BLOWN FROM A HOUSE AND TWO TREES BLOWN DOWN AT 4600 BLOCK OF BROWNLEAF DRIVE.
22:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Nnw PortlandSumner, TNPUBLIC SHARED VIDEO OF FUNNEL CLOUD ALONG HIGHWAY 109 NORTH OF PORTLAND
22:50 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Nne Belinda CityWilson, TN
23:44 UTCTORNADO4 Ene Mount JulietWilson, TNEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG BASS LANE WITH SEVERAL TREES BLOWN DOWN AND MINOR DAMAGE TO A HOUSE. OTHER TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ON QUARRY LOOP ROAD AT QUARRY ROAD AND AN OUTBUILDING HAD MINOR DAMAGE. INTERMITTENT PATH LE
23:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ene Mount JulietWilson, TNSEVERAL TREES BLOWN DOWN AND MINOR DAMAGE TO HOUSE ON BASS LANE. POSSIBLE TORNADO.
23:49 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Nne Belinda CityWilson, TNSEVERAL TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN AROUND THE INTERSECTION OF QUARRY LOOP ROAD AND QUARRY ROAD. MINOR DAMAGE TO AN OUTBUILDING.
00:20 UTCTORNADO4 Sw LebanonWilson, TNEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG OLD SHANNON ROAD AND MOVED EAST ACROSS HIGHWAY 231. A FENCE AND OTHER OBJECTS WERE BLOWN DOWN AT A SPEEDWAY GAS STATION ON HIGHWAY 231 AT HARTMANN DRIVE. SCATTERED TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALO
00:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Ssw LebanonWilson, TNTREES DOWN. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.
00:28 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 S LebanonWilson, TNPLANKS FROM FENCE AT SPEEDWAY GAS STATION... ON HIGHWAY 231 JUST SOUTH OF I-40... BLOWN INTO PARKING LOT AND ONTO HARTMANN DRIVE. TREE LIMBS ALSO BLOWN DOWN ALONG HARTMANN DRIVE.
00:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 E LebanonWilson, TNTREES DOWN AND TIN ROLLED UP ON ROOF OF PORTABLE MEDICAL UNIT AT FAIRGROUNDS. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.
00:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGLebanonWilson, TNROOF DAMAGE ALONG SOUTH CUMBERLAND ST
00:36 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E LebanonWilson, TNTREES AND POWERLINES DOWN NEAR BLUEBIRD ROAD AND OLD BLUEBIRD ROAD. TREE ON CAR. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.
00:36 UTCTORNADO2 Se LebanonWilson, TNEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ON SPARTA PIKE AT PEYTON ROAD THEN MOVED ACROSS THE WILSON COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS BEFORE LIFTING ALONG BLUEBIRD ROAD. AN OUTBUILDING WAS DESTROYED AND BLOWN ACROSS PEYTON ROAD AND A INFORMATION BOOTH
00:37 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Ese LebanonWilson, TNPOWER LINES DOWN ON PEYTON ROAD JUST EAST OF LEBANON. SMALL SHED BLOWN INTO ROADWAY. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 2, 2015

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 25:15 PM CDTEF0Davidson, TN0.950$20,000
July 26:44 PM CDTEF0Wilson, TN2.650$10,000
July 27:20 PM CDTEF0Wilson, TN2.5100$10,000
July 27:36 PM CDTEF0Wilson, TN1.1100$20,000

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.