EF0 tornado, Taylor Xrds, Tennessee, August 21, 2021

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

August 21, 2021

Touchdown

5:58 PM CDT (22:58 UTC)

Lifted

5:59 PM CDT (22:59 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Dickson County

Touchdown point

36.202, -87.415

Lift-off point

36.196, -87.411

Record number

2108211658-01

The deadliest flash flood to ever affect Middle Tennessee, and one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the state, struck the region on Saturday, August 21, 2021. Occurring only a few months after another deadly and disastrous flash flood impacted the Nashville metro area on March 27-28, 2021 and killed 7 people, this flash flood left catastrophic damage across several counties in western Middle Tennessee, including parts of Dickson County, Hickman County, Houston County, and especially Humphreys County. The flood waters damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, vehicles, and schools, with many buildings washed completely off their foundations. The damage was so severe that a Presidential Disaster Declaration was declared for Humphreys County two days later on August 23, 2021. Later in the week, Dickson, Hickman, and Houston Counties also received a Presidential Disaster Declaration. Very sadly, a total of 20 people were determined to have drowned in the flood, 19 of which were in the city of Waverly, TN, and 1 in the community of Hurricane Mills.||This historic flash flood occurred as a thunderstorms repeatedly developed along a weak surface front located over western Middle Tennessee during the morning hours of August 21. With a very moisture-laden atmosphere in place characterized by precipitable water values measured at 2.37 inches on the 12Z OHX upper air balloon sounding, these thunderstorms produced extreme rainfall rates over 3 inches per hour for several hours, resulting in rainfall totals reaching over 10 to 20 inches in a narrow, roughly 25 mile wide by 50 mile long swath across Houston, Dickson, Humphreys, and Hickman Counties. A rain gauge at the McEwen Wastewater Treatment Plant measured a rainfall total of 20.73 inches from midnight to 7pm CDT, which was verified by NWS personnel and set a new Tennessee state record for 24-hour rainfall. In addition to the flash flooding, one brief tornado was determined to have touched down in rural Dickson County northwest of Charlotte.

This small, brief EF-0 tornado was found in June 2022 through newly available high resolution satellite imagery, and was determined to have touched down in rural, inaccessible forests around 4.5 miles northwest of Charlotte. The tornado began to the southwest of Adams Road and moved southeast, blowing down numerous trees in a clearly convergent, spiral pattern before lifting northwest of Big Bartons Creek Road.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:57 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:13 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. 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.

Dickson (M02), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:58 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 2021 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.