EF1 tornado, Hermitage Spgs to Hestand, Tennessee, December 11, 2021

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

December 11, 2021

Touchdown

4:20 AM CST (10:20 UTC)

Lifted

4:30 AM CST (10:30 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

11.2 miles (18.0 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Monroe and Clay counties

Touchdown point

36.581, -85.774

Lift-off point

36.654, -85.598

Record number

2112110420-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK 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.

• West side of barn removed and blown north

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

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.

Strong southern winds brought warm temperatures and plenty of moisture into an environment of strong wind shear ahead of an advancing cold front. This resulted in unusually warm temperatures for a December day and the ingredients to produce a historic tornado outbreak and flash flooding. This included multiple long track tornadoes. Central Kentucky saw 18 tornadoes that injured 96 and killed 18. An additional death occurred in a flash flood.

This EF-1 tornado touched down in Hermitage Springs just south of Highway 52 where it uprooted trees. Moving along and just north of Highway 52, the tornado continued to blow down trees and causing shingle damage to multiple homes. The worst damage occurred along Old Clementsville Road where four large agricultural buildings were destroyed. The tornado continued northeast, damaging the roof of a home on Clementsville Road. Scattered tree damage was noted as the path continued into Monroe County, Kentucky, where it caused EF-0 damage to a barn and trees along Beech Groves Boles Road. The tornado continued to weaken as it moved northeast damaging a few trees before lifting near Verona Road east of Hestand, Kentucky. The path length in Tennessee was around 5.78 miles, with a total path length of 11.16 miles.

This tornado developed in Clay County, Tennessee, on the northeast side of Hermitage Springs, before tracking northeastward and crossing into Monroe County, Kentucky (see Storm Data from the Nashville, Tennessee office for more information on the beginning portion of this tornado in Tennessee). A barn and several trees were damaged along Beech Grove-Boles Road, with estimated maximum wind speeds of 85 mph. Additional trees were damaged along Rhoton Cave Road and near the intersection of Highways 163 and 216 in Hestand. The tornado damaged a barn near the intersection of Vernon Road and Bailey Cemetery Road before lifting.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:07 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 09:44 UTC and running to 12:53 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:48 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 Nashville radar (KOHX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:20 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

37 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.