EF1 tornado, Four Corners to Gladeville, 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

4:53 PM CST (22:53 UTC)

Lifted

5:06 PM CST (23:06 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

10.9 miles (17.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

Counties

Davidson, Wilson and Rutherford counties

Touchdown point

36.068, -86.574

Lift-off point

36.120, -86.390

Record number

1711181653-01

41 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 95 mph.

• Debris from destroyed shed behind home to the southwest
• Glade Church brick facade pulled off due to overhang getting ripped off
• Church cross blown over on roof; partially collapsed into sanctuary
• Totally destroyed building

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 began in far southeast Davidson County where weak tree and roof damage (EF-0) was noted on Hampton Blvd in the Villages of Long Hunter subdivision of Antioch. The tornado then crossed Percy Priest Lake into far northwest Rutherford County where numerous trees were blown down and the roofs of a few homes suffered minor damage. Moving into Wilson County, the tornado intensified to EF-1, snapping or uprooting dozens of trees and destroying several outbuildings on Fellowship Road and Underwood Road. The worst damage was in Gladeville where a few homes suffered roof damage on Cobblestone Way and Stonefield Drive, several fences were blown down, and a few outbuildings were destroyed. The steeple of a church on McCreary Road collapsed into the sanctuary, and part of an exterior brick wall was blown down. An RV carport across the street from the church was also destroyed. Another outbuilding was destroyed on Odum Lane and several more trees were blown down before the tornado lifted in inaccessible areas south of Highway 265. The ending point, ending time, and path length of the Wilson County portion of this tornado were updated in July 2018 based on newly available high resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, giving an updated total path length across Davidson, Rutherford, and Wilson Counties of 10.93 miles.

An EF-1 tornado began in far southeast Davidson County where weak tree and roof damage (EF-0) was noted on Hampton Blvd in the Villages of Long Hunter subdivision of Antioch. The tornado then crossed Percy Priest Lake into far northwest Rutherford County where numerous trees were blown down and the roofs of a few homes suffered minor damage. Moving into Wilson County, the tornado intensified to EF-1, snapping or uprooting dozens of trees and destroying several outbuildings on Fellowship Road and Underwood Road. The worst damage was in Gladeville where a few homes suffered roof damage on Cobblestone Way and Stonefield Drive, several fences were blown down, and a few outbuildings were destroyed. The steeple of a church on McCreary Road collapsed into the sanctuary, and part of an exterior brick wall was blown down. An RV carport across the street from the church was also destroyed. Another outbuilding was destroyed on Odum Lane and several more trees were blown down before the tornado lifted in inaccessible areas south of Highway 265. The ending point, ending time, and path length of the Wilson County portion of this tornado were updated in July 2018 based on newly available high resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, giving an updated total path length across Davidson, Rutherford, and Wilson Counties of 10.93 miles.

An EF-1 tornado began in far southeast Davidson County where weak tree and roof damage (EF-0) was noted on Hampton Blvd in the Villages of Long Hunter subdivision of Antioch. The tornado then crossed Percy Priest Lake into far northwest Rutherford County where numerous trees were blown down and the roofs of a few homes suffered minor damage. Moving into Wilson County, the tornado intensified to EF-1, snapping or uprooting dozens of trees and destroying several outbuildings on Fellowship Road and Underwood Road. The worst damage was in Gladeville where a few homes suffered roof damage on Cobblestone Way and Stonefield Drive, several fences were blown down, and a few outbuildings were destroyed. The steeple of a church on McCreary Road collapsed into the sanctuary, and part of an exterior brick wall was blown down. An RV carport across the street from the church was also destroyed. Another outbuilding was destroyed on Odum Lane and several more trees were blown down before the tornado lifted in inaccessible areas south of Highway 265. The ending point, ending time, and path length of the Wilson County portion of this tornado were updated in July 2018 based on newly available high resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, giving an updated total path length across Davidson, Rutherford, and Wilson Counties of 10.93 miles.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:53 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:06 UTC.

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.

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 19 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:54 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.