EF1 tornado, Pleasant Hill to Center Grove, Tennessee, March 9, 2017

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

March 9, 2017

Touchdown

11:55 PM CST (05:55 UTC)

Lifted

12:08 AM CST (06:08 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.8 km)

Path width

320 yards (293 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Moore and Franklin counties

Touchdown point

35.300, -86.280

Lift-off point

35.280, -86.210

Record number

1703092355-01

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• tree snapped close to the tree on the car. 1 to 2 other trees nearby were also snapped.
• tree across the road. it's a healthy tree
• down in an easterly direction
• tree down, push point back 200 yards to the north

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

A quasi-linear convective system developed rapidly during the evening hours of the 9th and tracked east through southern middle Tennessee through the early morning hours of the 10th. The thunderstorms produced one EF-1 tornado and other reports of damaging thunderstorm winds.

A damage assessment team determined an EF-1 tornado touched down approximately 5 miles east-northeast of Lynchburg, TN. The tornado continued in a generally east-southeast direction into Franklin County before gusting out approximately 4 miles west of Estill Springs, TN.||In Moore County, between Turkey Creek Loop and Turkey Creek Church Road, significant tree damage was observed by the team. Numerous, healthy soft wood trees were either uprooted or snapped. An area of convergence was noted as several trees along Turkey Creek Loop were oriented in a northerly direction (potentially due to a developing rear flank down draft) with debris scattered eastward near and along Turkey Creek Church Rd. Strongest winds in Moore County were estimated to be between 85-90 MPH.

As the tornado tracked into Franklin County, sporadic tree damage was observed, |generally in the strong EF-0 range. However, the most intense damage occurred near the end of the track along Hurricane Rd and Riddle Ln were a chicken house (undergoing rebuilding) and a mobile home were completely destroyed. Estimated wind speed at this location was 100 MPH (decreased due to the unknown quality of the chicken house and unknown condition of the mobile home). Further to the east,|the tornado knocked down several more trees, before gusting out, and causing |straight line wind damage, along HWY 130 and areas further east.||It should be worth noting that the team found numerous causes of straight line wind |damage outside of the estimated vortex of the tornado. Straight line winds, just |outside of the path, were estimated in the 70-80 MPH range.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 05:20 UTC and running to 07:07 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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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.

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

16 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.