EF0 tornado, Spout Spgs to Woodland Mills, Tennessee, December 10, 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

December 10, 2021

Touchdown

8:41 PM CST (02:41 UTC)

Lifted

8:44 PM CST (02:44 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (5.0 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Obion County

Touchdown point

36.407, -89.224

Lift-off point

36.442, -89.190

Record number

2112102041-01

79 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG and NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• Cause water tower in distance. Crossed road.
• Snapped power poles on west side of road.
• Crossed road. Path widens.
• Beginning point. Tree was snapped.

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

December 10, 2021, was unseasonably warm over the region. Temperatures broke several long-standing records. Memphis hit 80��F which broke a 103-year-old high-temperature record. ||A strong upper-level trough was approaching from the west, providing strong lift within the unseasonably warm and unstable air mass. MLCAPE reached the 1500-2000 J/kg range by 6 PM. The wind field was impressive with plenty of vertical wind shear needed for organized thunderstorms. Effective 0-1 km storm-relative helicity values ranged from 300-400 m2/s2 with effective bulk shear values of 70 knots - more than sufficient to support discrete supercells in the warm sector ahead of the cold front.||The first supercell developed in central Arkansas and tracked into northeast Arkansas producing a few weak tornadoes initially before intensifying across eastern Craighead and Mississippi Counties and killing two people. The tornado eventually strengthened into an EF-4 while moving through the Missouri Bootheel, resulting in 2 direct and one indirect fatality in Pemiscot County. The tornado then tracked across the Mississippi River into northwest Tennessee, producing an additional 4 fatalities near Reelfoot Lake. This tornado lifted for a brief time in Obion County, reorganized, and then moved into Kentucky. All told, the mesocyclone tracked for over 300 miles and was producing tornadoes for over 250 miles. This storm was responsible for at least 9 fatalities and many injuries in the NWS Memphis CWA along with millions of dollars of damage. ||As the initial supercell was crossing the state line into Kentucky, a string of supercells was moving into eastern Arkansas. A few brief tornadoes produced minor damage near Cash in western Craighead County and in the Fisher area of western Poinsett County. As the dominant supercell moved into eastern Poinsett County, the mesocyclone quickly intensified and the storm produced an EF-2 tornado in Trumann with several injuries and widespread damage. ||A new supercell developed in Mississippi County causing straight-line wind damage initially. This supercell intensified as it crossed the Mississippi River and produced another long-track tornado starting in Dyer County, Tennessee. This tornado tracked east-northeast across northwest Tennessee into Henry County, and eventually into Kentucky. This tornado was rated EF-3 and resulted in several injuries with Kenton and Dresden, Tennessee being the hardest hit. ||The convection eventually evolved into a QLCS as it moved east. A mesovortex developed south of I-40 near Jackson that resulted in 3 tornadoes across eastern Madison, Henderson, and Decatur Counties including an EF-2. Non-tornadic storms moved across the Memphis metropolitan area, producing straight-line wind damage as a mesovortex moved through the city. A fatality was reported in Shelby County after a large tree fell on a home in South Memphis. Later that night, an EF-1 tornado occurred in Prentiss County before the severe weather threat began to wind down around 6 AM on December 11, 2021. ||In total, there were 18 tornadoes across the NWS Memphis CWA. Along with tornadoes, several incidents of wind damage and minor flash flooding also occurred.

A brief tornado uprooted trees along Marvin Vaught Road northeast of Samburg. Peak winds were estimated at 90 mph.

A tornado damaged trees and storage buildings along Shawtown Road. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

A brief tornado damaged trees along Highway 22 west of Union City. Peak winds were estimated at 70 mph.

The supercell that produced the long track EF-4 tornado from Craighead County, Arkansas into western Obion County, Tennessee reintensified and formed another tornado in northern Obion County near Woodland Mills. A home suffered roof damage on Woodland Mills Road and trees were uprooted north of Woodland Mills. The tornado then crossed into Fulton County and eventually intensified into an EF-4 as it approached Mayfield, Kentucky. Peak winds in Obion County were estimated at 75 mph.

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

37 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:04 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:08 UTC and running to 04:50 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:47 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 Paducah radar (KPAH), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:41 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 2021 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

32 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.