EF0 tornado, Arrow to Needmore, Tennessee, August 31, 2017

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

August 31, 2017

Touchdown

5:11 PM CDT (22:11 UTC)

Lifted

5:20 PM CDT (22:20 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Maury County

Touchdown point

35.518, -87.225

Lift-off point

35.559, -87.258

Record number

1708311611-01

6 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 78 mph.

• Photo from WKRN at Gillian Farms
• Photo from Maury County EMA
• Maury County EMA reported minor roof damage to home at 1586 Highway 166
• Several media photos show a multiple vortex tornado touching down on this hill

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

One week after Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the middle Texas coast, a weakened but still intense Tropical Depression Harvey moved across Middle Tennessee from Thursday August 31, 2017 into Friday September 1, 2017. Supercells rotating around Harvey spawned four weak tornadoes in Davidson, Maury, and Perry Counties. In addition, strong northeast winds up to 50 mph associated with the circulation of Harvey brought down numerous trees and power lines in areas along and west of I-65, knocking out power to thousands of residents. Finally, the heavy rainbands of Harvey produced 8-10 of rain in some areas, leading to major flash flooding of homes and roads. The flash flooding along with the strong winds continued into the morning hours on September 1.

A multiple vortex EF-0 tornado associated with Tropical Depression Harvey touched down just southwest of Mt. Pleasant and traveled to the northwest for about 3.5 miles. This tornado was captured on video by several residents, and was on the ground intermittently for up to 10 minutes. Several trees were uprooted and many large tree limbs snapped on Webb Williams Road and Highway 166. Sheet metal was blown off several farm outbuildings at Gillian Farms on Highway 166 at Old Gibson Hollow Road, and sheet metal was peeled off the large porch of a home at 1586 Highway 66. Maximum winds were estimated up to 75 mph.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:43 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

Columbia (MRC), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:10 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 2017 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

15 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.