EF1 tornado, Mineral Park to Benton Station, Tennessee, April 12, 2020

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

April 12, 2020

Touchdown

11:55 PM EDT (03:55 UTC)

Lifted

12:00 AM EDT (04:00 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.7 miles (7.6 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Bradley and Polk counties

Touchdown point

35.205, -84.775

Lift-off point

35.216, -84.693

Record number

2004122155-01

104 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MRX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Mobile home blew off foundation but was not tied down across from this tree.
• Very small electrical tower
• multiple pine trees down behind this tree line in the adjacent field.
• Left edge of rotation track

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

A prolonged convective event with deep moist southerly flow in an unstable environment with strong wind shear generated supercell thunderstorms across Southeast Tennessee and Southwest North Carolina. The lengthy period of heavy rain resulted in widespread three to four inch rainfall totals across East Tennessee, Southwest North Carolina, and Southwest Virginia.

This tornado started near Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia in Catoosa County and tracked across eastern Hamilton County in Tennessee. The tornado weakened as it crossed South Lee Highway and eventually dissipated in southwestern Bradley County. The tornado crossed into Bradley County approximately 1.9 miles southwest of McDonald. This portion of the tornado in Bradley County was rated as EF0.

The storm from Hamilton County moved into Bradley County with a mesocyclone moving directly over downtown Cleveland. A tornado then formed quickly in Cleveland, less than a mile east northeast of downtown. A residential section was hit, comprising single family homes as well as mobile homes, with 26 destroyed, 23 receiving major damage, and 62 other dwellings affected. A church in this area was heavily damaged and hundreds of trees were either uprooted, or had large limbs snapped. The tornado then moved out of the city before occluding and dissipating in rural areas near Benton Pike east of downtown.

After the Cleveland tornado occluded, the parent mesocyclone spawned another tornado that began near Michigan Avenue Road and Minnis Road. Snapped and uprooted trees were seen in this area along with downed utility poles. The tornado continued moving northeast and strengthened near Corvin and Wilkerson Roads where single family homes sustained significant roof damage, several barns and outbuildings were either partially or completely destroyed, and hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. This type of damage continued along Chatata Valley Road through Julian Road. The tornado then began to dissipate along Julian Road northeast of Evans Road where damage was mainly to trees and roof shingles.

Around the time that the Cleveland 2E tornado was occluding along Julian Road, another tornado began developing south of Tasso just to the southwest of the New Friendship Cemetery. Many trees were snapped and uprooted in the cemetery, and a wooded area between the cemetery and a private residence was deforested. The tornado weakened as it moved across Chatata Valley Road before restrengthening along Cates Lane and Morgan Road where hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted along with roof and cosmetic damage to a few single family homes and outbuildings. Similar damage continued as the tornado traveled along Baker Bridge Road before it began to weaken with its path becoming less defined. The tornado dissipated near Geren and Upper River Roads where a wider area of tree damage occurred.

This tornado began in Bradley County near Tasso just to the southwest of the New Friendship Cemetery. After crossing Baker Bridge Road in northeast Bradley County it began to weaken with its path was less defined. The tornado crossed into Polk County approximately 2.9 miles north-northwest of Benton, Tennessee. The tornado dissipated near Geren and Upper River Roads where a wider area of tree damage occurred.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS MRX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:28 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:06 UTC and running to 05:14 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 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.

Cleveland (RZR), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:56 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 2020 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

72 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 73 of them

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.