EF1 tornado, Black Creek to Helenwood, Tennessee, June 11, 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

June 11, 2023

Touchdown

6:04 PM EDT (22:04 UTC)

Lifted

6:11 PM EDT (22:11 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

36.392, -84.603

Lift-off point

36.418, -84.551

Record number

2306111604-01

20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MRX 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 107 mph.

• Tree was uprooted and fell on singlewide mobile home. Occupant was home but no injuries.
• Many trees snapped or uprooted continuing into the woods. One tree fell and crushed the rear of a car and portions of a singlewide mobile home.
• Tree fell and damaged utility service lines and destroyed a singlewide mobile home.
• Tree snapped and rotating before falling on top of a mobile home. Tree falling snapped a nearby power pole.

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

Prefrontal trough allowed for discrete supercells to eastern Tennessee, producing severe winds, several hail reports, and a tornado.

A NWS Storm Survey found an EF1 tornado outside of Helenwood, Tennessee. The tornado began on Grassy Knob Road and tracked to the northeast for approximately 3.40 miles in a non-continuous path. Numerous large trees were felled or snapped by the tornado, including several trees landing on and near mobile homes. Another tree fell on the rear portions of a car. A barn suffered minor roof damage to a carport attachment, with debris strewn downwind.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS MRX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:35 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:34 UTC and running to 01:56 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 Knoxville radar (KMRX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:02 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

7 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.