EF1 tornado, Joelton to Lickton, Tennessee, November 18, 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

November 18, 2017

Touchdown

4:30 PM CST (22:30 UTC)

Lifted

4:32 PM CST (22:32 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Davidson County

Touchdown point

36.327, -86.878

Lift-off point

36.325, -86.836

Record number

1711181630-01

40 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Garage off foundation. window blown out. insulation plastered on east side wall.
• Several trees snapped midway up
• Both garage doors bowed out facing west. roof missing
• Roof missing. tree snapped at trunk.

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

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms, known as a Quasi-Linear Convective System (or QLCS), moved rapidly across Middle Tennessee at 60 mph from west to east between 3 PM and 7 PM CST on Saturday, November 18, 2017. This line of storms produced widespread damaging winds in many counties generally along and north of the I-40 corridor. In addition to the damaging winds, the QLCS produced 4 confirmed tornadoes which damaged numerous homes and other buildings.

An EF-1 tornado started along Stagner Road just north of Interstate 24 around 1.2 miles northwest of Joelton, blowing down several trees as it moved eastward to Whites Creek Pike. More trees and power lines were blown down on Millken Drive and Margie Drive before the tornado intensified and caused significant roof damage to two homes on Gary Road just south of Union Hill Road. Several power poles were also snapped and trees uprooted in this area. The tornado continued eastward through inaccessible forests blowing down numerous trees before rapidly dissipating about one half mile north of the Clay Lick Road bridge over Interstate 24. The beginning point, start time, end point, and path length of this tornado were updated in July 2018 based on newly available high resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:37 UTC and running to 23:56 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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.

John C Tune (JWN), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:30 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.