EF0 tornado, Graball to Hunters Pt, Tennessee, December 11, 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 11, 2021

Touchdown

3:42 AM CST (09:42 UTC)

Lifted

3:48 AM CST (09:48 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

6.2 miles (10.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Sumner County

Touchdown point

36.443, -86.436

Lift-off point

36.472, -86.330

Record number

2112110342-01

50 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 104 mph.

• Several trees and powerlines down
• Numerous trees uprooted. Damage to several boat docks.
• Roof peeled up on barn, a few trees snapped.
• Several trees damaged roofs on homes

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.

This EF-0 tornado touched down on Lindsey Hollow Road and moved northeast toward Phosphate Lane where a few trees were snapped or uprooted, an outbuilding was destroyed, and the roof of a home was damaged. The tornado continued northeast causing tree damage along Wrights Lane and South Dry Fork Road. It damaged a few more trees before lifting at Highway 31E near Hinton Road.

This small EF-0 tornado was determined through a combination of NWS storm surveys, NASA satellite imagery, and radar data, and touched down near Belotes Ferry Road in far northern Wilson County where it blew down a few trees. The tornado crossed the Cumberland River into the Belotes Bend area of Sumner County where it blew down dozens of trees in a narrow swath across inaccessible rural areas south of Harsh Lane and Preacher Robertson Road. The tornado again crossed the Cumberland River back into Wilson County where it continued to blow down trees in the Lytles Bend area west of Canoe Branch Road before lifting. Total path length of this tornado was 3.07 miles.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:21 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:45 UTC and running to 11:00 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.

Sumner (XNX), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:43 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.