Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2021

EF0 tornado, Dogtown to Barkertown, Tennessee, December 11, 2021

From Dogtown to Barkertown, this EF0 tornado ran 8.9 miles across Grundy County on December 11, 2021, touching down at 7:39 AM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
December 11, 2021
Touchdown
7:39 AM CST (13:39 UTC)
Lifted
7:48 AM CST (13:48 UTC)
On the ground
9 minutes
Path length
8.9 miles (14.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Grundy County
Touchdown point
35.347, -85.712
Lift-off point
35.392, -85.565
Record number
2112110739-01

The damage survey

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

  • Numerous trees uprooted. About 100 yards wide, maybe wider?
  • A few large pines uprooted and snapped
  • A few treea uprooted in the woods
  • A few trees in the woods uprooted

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

One of the worst tornado outbreaks ever recorded in the United States struck the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and Tennessee Valley from the evening hours on December 10 into the morning hours on December 11, 2021. Across Middle Tennessee, a total of 16 tornadoes were determined to have touched down, making this the 5th largest tornado outbreak on record in Middle Tennessee. These tornadoes injured 8 people across Middle Tennessee and caused millions of dollars in property and tree damage in many counties. These tornadoes, combined with the 5 tornadoes that occurred just a few days earlier across Middle Tennessee on December 6, 2021, set a new record for the number of tornadoes during the month of December. In addition, many counties that had tornadoes in December 2021 had never recorded a tornado in the month of December before, including Stewart, Humphreys, Cheatham, Wilson, Trousdale, Overton, Pickett, Coffee, and Grundy Counties.

The tornado touched down in Coalmont and quickly produced 90 mph winds that uprooted many trees on Freemont Road. It moved northeast and blew out the walls of a metal building structure and downed additional trees on 20th Avenue South near Highway 108. The tornado weakened as it crossed the highway and continued northeast. It uprooted and snapped trees east of Gruetli-Laager before lifting near Cullen Savage Road north of Barkertown Road.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Nashville, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Dec 11, 7:05 AM CST, 34 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 11, 7:05 AM CST, 34 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 11, 6:58 AM CST, 41 minutes before
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In the hours before

Local storm report, Dec 11, 6:32 AM CST, 1 hour 7 minutes before
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Local storm report, Dec 11, 6:38 AM CST, 1 hour 1 minute before
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Local storm report, Dec 11, 6:41 AM CST, 58 minutes before
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Local storm report, Dec 11, 6:46 AM CST, 53 minutes before
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Local storm report, Dec 11, 6:51 AM CST, 48 minutes before
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Local storm report, Dec 11, 7:33 AM CST, 6 minutes before
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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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

10.3 hours after it, 121 km from the path. December 12, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2021-12-12Temperature 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 -83552, lifted condensation level 1287 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2021-12-12The 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 -104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 106 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
-83552 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1287 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
106 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mc Minnville (RNC), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:36 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 11, 2021

37 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 111:06 AM ESTEF1Hardin, KY1.950
December 1112:40 AM CSTEF0Fayette, TN0.550
December 1112:47 AM CSTEF3Logan, KY28.01,4001
December 111:51 AM ESTEF1Spencer, KY1.9100
December 111:09 AM CSTEF3Bowling Green tornado, KY29.34401663
December 111:19 AM CSTEF2Warren, KY6.1300
December 111:32 AM CSTEF1Madison, TN7.9300$700,000
December 111:38 AM CSTEF2Barren, KY17.0900
December 111:40 AM CSTEF2Henderson, TN15.36001$4.0 million
December 111:52 AM CSTEF2Hart, KY23.85281
December 112:00 AM CSTEF1Decatur, TN9.1100$220,000
December 113:06 AM ESTEF1Hardin, OH1.6150$300,000
December 112:15 AM CSTEF2Perry, TN15.2600$140,000
December 113:20 AM ESTEF3Taylor, KY14.5450131
December 112:32 AM CSTEF1Hickman, TN8.5400$50,000
December 112:40 AM CSTEF2Hickman, TN10.95002$2.0 million
December 113:41 AM ESTEF1Marion, KY1.950
December 112:49 AM CSTEF0Dickson, TN5.4175$10,000
December 112:57 AM CSTEF2Dickson, TN12.64001$1.5 million
December 114:01 AM ESTEF2Boyle, KY0.6100
December 114:02 AM ESTEF1Boyle, KY3.6400
December 114:04 AM ESTEF1Boyle, KY7.1100
December 114:07 AM ESTEF1Garrard, KY3.0950
December 114:10 AM ESTEF1Garrard, KY0.6100
December 113:12 AM CSTEF0Davidson, TN9.0300$250,000
December 114:22 AM ESTEF1Madison, KY0.375
December 113:30 AM CSTEF1Davidson, TN6.8150$1.8 million
December 114:31 AM ESTEF1Madison, KY1.2125
December 113:31 AM CSTEF1Davidson, TN7.71001$1.3 million
December 113:33 AM CSTEF0Davidson, TN1.450$250,000
December 113:42 AM CSTEF0Sumner, TN6.250$25,000
December 113:48 AM CSTEF0Wilson, TN3.150$20,000
December 114:04 AM CSTEF0Smith, TN7.375$20,000
December 114:20 AM CSTEF1Monroe, TN to KY11.275$500,000
December 114:30 AM CSTEF1Prentiss, MS4.5100$125,000
December 116:17 AM CSTEF0Giles, TN5.050$20,000
December 115:16 PM ESTEF0Wilkinson, GA3.8200

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.