EF1 tornado, St Joseph to Appleton, Tennessee, November 5, 2018

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 5, 2018

Touchdown

11:41 PM CST (05:41 UTC)

Lifted

11:46 PM CST (05:46 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Lawrence County

Touchdown point

35.051, -87.506

Lift-off point

35.073, -87.435

Record number

1811052341-01

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN and 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.

• minor metal roof damage, minor tree damage, Eastern most damage point
• sports complex, windward door blown in, partial roof blow out
• damage to multiple cinder block dugouts, bleachers tossed. well built concession stand with only minor shingle and gutter damage. none of the tall light poles touched
• middle of path, wooden barn destroyed, metal siding strewn few hundred yards down stream

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

A line of severe thunderstorms called a Quasi-linear Convective System (QLCS) developed across west Tennessee and moved eastward across Middle Tennessee during the late evening hours on Monday, November 5, 2018 into the early morning hours on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. This system spawned at least 10 tornadoes across Middle Tennessee that occurred in the darkness of night, including an EF-2 tornado that struck the Christiana area of Rutherford County, which unfortunately killed one woman and injured three others. Other tornadoes in this outbreak affected central Kentucky, northern and central Alabama, Mississippi and northern Louisiana. This tornado outbreak was the worst to affect Middle Tennessee since the December 23, 2015 tornado outbreak, which also occurred at night during the secondary severe weather season that occurs in the fall and early winter.

This EF-1 tornado touched down on Bluff Road causing minor roof damage to a home and breaking several large limbs outside the home. A nearby barn was heavily damaged. It traveled to the northeast where it encountered an oversized mobile home. Indications were that the strapping on the mobile home was rusty and not tied down well, allowing it to roll over. Winds here did seem strongest, however, topping out at 90 mph. The resident of the mobile home was able to escape to safety as he received the warning a couple minutes prior to the tornado striking his home. The tornado continued northeast and when it crossed South Ball Park Road, it demolished 2 hay barns and caused minor roof damage to 2 homes. As the tornado approached the city of Loretto, it caused extensive damage to the city's sports complex behind South Lawrence Elementary. Three cinder block dugouts were destroyed, two large sections of bleachers were tossed 25 to 30 yards and there was minor roof damage to the concession stand and an outbuilding where maintenance equipment was stored. Special thanks to the South Lawrence Elementary staff for provding video evidence of the tornado as it moved through the area. As the tornado approached Hwy 43, several homes were damaged by uprooted trees and there was some minor roof damage to a large outbuilding at a wood yard on 2nd Avenue. The tornado finished up by taking down power lines on the west side of Highway 43 near Vine Street and blowing down a few trees on the east side of Highway 43 before lifting. This tornado path was adjusted and extended slightly in May 2020 due to newly available Google Earth high resolution satellite imagery.

This EF-0 tornado touched down just east of Highway 98, damaging several chicken barns. It traveled northeast and crossed Hood Hollow Road, causing minor damage to one home and destroyed multiple outbuildings. The tornado tracked further to the northeast, snapped a few trees and several large pine tree limbs before crossing Bassham Road and lifting. This tornado path was adjusted and extended slightly in May 2020 based on newly available high resolution Google Earth satellite imagery.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:08 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:05 UTC and running to 07:16 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 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 00:40 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 Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:41 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 2018 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.