Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2018

EF1 tornado, Gibbs to Harris, Tennessee, February 24, 2018

From Gibbs to Harris, this EF1 tornado ran 3.2 miles across Obion County on February 24, 2018, touching down at 7:07 PM CST and reaching 450 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, and did $2.0 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
February 24, 2018
Touchdown
7:07 PM CST (01:07 UTC)
Lifted
7:10 PM CST (01:10 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
3.2 miles (5.1 km)
Path width
450 yards (411 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$2.0 million
County
Obion County
Touchdown point
36.417, -89.001
Lift-off point
36.459, -88.978
Record number
1802241907-01

The damage survey

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 98 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong cold front interacted with a very unstable airmass across the Midsouth during the afternoon and evening hours of February 24h. All facets of severe weather occurred.

The tornado occurred just east of Union City, Tennessee. The tornado's damage pattern suggested a broad, occasionally disorganized circulation with several small swaths of more intense damage. A number of homes along the path had roof damage. Several mobile homes were destroyed. The most significant damage was noted on Orchard and Jenkins Roads and also along Knox Daniel Road. Peak winds were estimated at 105-110 mph.

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

The warnings

37 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:30 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:18 UTC and running to 02:33 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:18 UTC02:33 UTCTornado WatchMEG
23:19 UTC05:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningMEG
00:22 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
00:30 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningMEG
00:45 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
01:03 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:42 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 air that afternoon

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.

Little Rock, AR (KBYH), 12:00Z

10.9 hours after it, 199 km from the path. February 25, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2018-02-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -90568, lifted condensation level 1747 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2018-02-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -244 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 90 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90568 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1747 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
90 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-244 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:04 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:02 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Ne Union CityObion, TNSEVERAL HOMES DAMAGED AND POWER LINES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
01:02 UTCTORNADO3 Ne Union CityObion, TN*** 3 INJ *** POSSIBLE TORNADO. 10 PEOPLE WERE RESCUED FROM SEVERAL DAMAGED STRUCTURES AROUND THE AREA. THREE INDIVIDUALS WERE TRANSPORTED TO HOSPITAL WITH UNKNOWN INJURIES.
01:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sw TrimbleDyer, TNMULTIPLE TREES DOWN ACROSS ROAD BETWEEN NEWBERN AND TRIMBLE.
01:42 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Nne GleasonWeakley, TN4 FOOT DIAMETER TREE DOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY 190, BLOCKING BOTH LANES. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
01:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGDresdenWeakley, TNSOME TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS THE COUNTY.
01:50 UTCFLASH FLOOD3 Ne NewbernDyer, TNFLOODED ROADS BETWEEN TRIMBLE AND NEWBERN. POSSIBLE ROADS WASHED OUT.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 24, 2018

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 243:53 PM CSTEF2Robertson, TN to KY12.935011$850,000
February 245:11 PM CSTEF0Jackson, AR0.250$20,000
February 245:19 PM CSTEF1Barren, KY1.950$280,000
February 245:20 PM CSTEF1Cross, AR3.275$500,000
February 245:21 PM CSTEF2Clay, AR to MO41.915015$2.5 million
February 246:06 PM CSTEF2Mississippi, AR9.91001$1.0 million
February 246:30 PM CSTEF2New Madrid, MO0.91502$750,000
February 246:51 PM CSTEF0Obion, TN5.675$50,000
February 247:17 PM CSTEF0Gibson, TN4.375$25,000
February 247:21 PM CSTEF0Weakley, TN5.275$50,000
February 247:36 PM CSTEF0Weakley, TN7.475$25,000
February 247:37 PM CSTEF1Calloway, KY8.3125$450,000
February 247:37 PM CSTEF1McCracken, KY1.9100$85,000
February 247:42 PM CSTEF1Graves, KY1.2100$50,000
February 247:50 PM CSTEF1Calloway, KY1.4100$550,000
February 248:02 PM CSTEF1Henry, TN3.975$50,000
February 248:44 PM CSTEF0Christian, KY5.375$20,000
February 248:45 PM CSTEF2Christian, KY5.42009$6.0 million
February 248:50 PM CSTEF1Montgomery, TN5.3150$1.0 million
February 248:55 PM CSTEF0Christian, KY0.550$6,000
February 249:03 PM CSTEF2Montgomery, TN4.12002$7.0 million
February 249:15 PM CSTEF0Logan, KY2.9300$30,000
February 249:19 PM CSTEF1Robertson, TN3.6150$50,000
February 249:21 PM CSTEF1Butler, KY1.4100$20,000
February 249:50 PM CSTEF0Simpson, KY1.7100$50,000
February 2410:33 PM CSTEF2Green, KY1.3100$130,000
February 2412:03 AM ESTEF1Clermont, OH3.5200$85,000
February 2412:13 AM ESTEF1Brown, OH4.9300$65,000
February 2412:50 AM ESTEF1Garrard, KY0.1100$50,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.