EF0 tornado, Wilhite to Shady Grove, Tennessee, May 28, 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

May 28, 2021

Touchdown

12:57 PM CDT (17:57 UTC)

Lifted

1:17 PM CDT (18:17 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

12.8 miles (20.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Putnam County

Touchdown point

36.131, -85.532

Lift-off point

36.190, -85.317

Record number

2105281157-01

65 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Trees reportedly blown down at 150 Difficult Lane
• Photo from comments on Putnam County EMA facebook page
• Photo from Putnam County EMA
• Debris from church and outbuilding. Photo from Putnam County EMA

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

A short line of thunderstorms moved across the Upper Cumberland during the early afternoon hours on Friday, May 28. This line of storms spawned two weak QLCS tornadoes that damaged several homes and businesses in Putnam and Overton Counties. Two minor injuries occurred south of Livingston in Overton County, but no injuries were reported in Putnam County.

An EF-0 tornado touched down near South Willow Avenue and Winston Drive in Cookeville, causing minor damage to the Willow Avenue Church of Christ and moderate damage to two church outbuildings. Several trees were blown down at the Hampton Creek Apartments just off to the east, and one apartment building suffered minor roof damage. The tornado continued northeast across Jefferson Avenue and Highway 111, but only minimal damage was noted with just a few small trees and signs damaged. More significant damage occurred in east Cookeville on Watauga Road, Linda Avenue, Spring Street, and Dry Valley Road where numerous trees were blown down. Trees continued to be snapped and uprooted as the tornado crossed Mountain Top Lane and Mount Pleasant Road, and one home was severely damaged by fallen trees on Falling Water Road. More trees were blown down on Brotherton Mountain Road and Stamps Shady Grove Road before the tornado lifted.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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.

Sparta (SRB), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:54 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

8 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.