EF1 tornado, Gregory to West Union, Tennessee, December 9, 2023

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 9, 2023

Touchdown

11:32 AM CST (17:32 UTC)

Lifted

12:03 PM CST (18:03 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

24.9 miles (40.1 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$1.3 million

Counties

Gibson and Weakley counties

Touchdown point

36.117, -89.060

Lift-off point

36.265, -88.653

Record number

2312091132-01

45 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Multiple tree tops snapped.
• Center pivot irrigation system overturned
• Roof removed when door collapsed

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

A strong storm system swept across the Mid-South on December 9, 2023, driven by a deep longwave trough and closed upper-level low-pressure system. In the early morning hours, a cold front slowly began moving east across Arkansas and Tennessee. Ahead of this boundary, warm and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico was efficiently transported to the Mid-South as surface dew points climbed into the low and mid-60s by 9 am. By mid-morning, a line of sub-severe storms formed in northeast Arkansas. As this line pushed east of the Mississippi River, storms encountered an environment favorable for severe weather. A strong supercell went on to produce large hail and an EF-1 tornado in Gibson and Weakley counties in Tennessee. New supercells formed in southeast Arkansas by late morning and immediately began producing large hail as they moved east into northern Mississippi. Hailstones of golf ball size and larger were the main attributes of these supercells. Most notable were several baseball size (2.75 inch) reports across portions of northwest Mississippi and a softball size hailstone (4.0 inch) report near Byhalia, MS. Baseball size hail is not uncommon in the Mid-South, but it tends to occur mainly in the springtime. This hail event entered the record books as the largest outbreak of significant hail (2.0 inches or greater) in December history across the Mid-South.

The first evidence of tornado damage was near Bells Chapel Road near Jim Dedmon Road in Gibson County where numerous hardwood trees were snapped. The tornado generally moved east to northeast at times. A home on Bells Chapel Road sustained roof damage and a carport was destroyed. A small barn lost most of its roofing and snapped hardwood trees were also noted nearby. The tornado crossed Highway 105 and produced roof and wall damage to homes on Joe Lumpkin Road. The tornado continued to move to the northeast and crossed Highway 45 hitting the Gibson County Rescue 9 station. A semi-truck and van were overturned as the tornado crossed Highway 45. Significant roof damage and collapsed walls occurred at this location along with numerous snapped hardwood trees. Additional damage was noted on Walnut Grove Road to hardwood trees with some structural damage to a barn and carport.|The tornado moved to the northeast and crossed into Weakley County.

This tornado moved from Gibson County into Weakley County northwest of Greenfield where more hardwood tree damage was observed along with snapped wooden power poles. The tornado continued to the northeast, south of Sharon, passing to the north of the Middle Fork Obion River. A concentrated area of damage was noted south of Dresden on Summers Road. A double-wide trailer rolled off its foundation resulting in two injuries. Businesses on Evergreen Street sustained minor roof damage. Minor roof damage was also observed at the National Guard Armory on Highway 22. The tornado dissipated just east of Highway 22. Peak winds were estimated at 110 mph in Weakley County.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:36 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), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:30 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 2023 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.