EF0 tornado, Beckwith to Lebanon, Tennessee, July 2, 2015

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

July 2, 2015

Touchdown

6:44 PM CDT (23:44 UTC)

Lifted

6:53 PM CDT (23:53 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Wilson County

Touchdown point

36.223, -86.461

Lift-off point

36.236, -86.416

Record number

1507021744-01

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.

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 along Bass Lane in Mount Juliet with several trees blown down and minor damage to a house. Other trees were blown down on Quarry Loop Road at Quarry Road and a warehouse building had minor roof damage. A few more trees were blown down along the south side of Highway 70 east of Highway 109 before the tornado lifted. Maximum winds were estimated at 65 mph.

An EF0 tornado touched down intermittently along Old Shannon Road and moved east across Bartons Creek Road, Old Murfreesboro Road and Highway 231 before lifting along Maddox Simpson Parkway. Scattered trees and tree limbs were blown down along the path, and a fence and trash cans at a Speedway Gas Station on Highway 231 were blown northeast onto Maddox Simpson Parkway. Video from security cameras at the gas station recorded the tornado approaching and passing over the gas station. Maximum winds were estimated at 75 mph.

An EF0 tornado down along Sparta Pike at Peyton Road then moved northeast across the Wilson County Fairgrounds before lifting northeast of Bluebird Road. A few outdoor sheds at a business on the west side of Sparta Pike were damaged and another was blown northeast across Peyton Road and destroyed. A power pole was also snapped and power lines blown down on Peyton Road. Several trees were blown down and an information booth was destroyed at the Wilson County Fairgrounds. More trees were blown down on Bluebird Road with one falling onto and crushing a pickup truck. Emergency management personnel took video of the tornado as it passed through the Fairgrounds. Maximum winds were estimated at 75 mph.

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

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.

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 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 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), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:42 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

4 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.