EF1 tornado, Howell Hill to Vanntown, Tennessee, May 8, 2024

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

May 8, 2024

Touchdown

9:02 PM CDT (02:02 UTC)

Lifted

9:06 PM CDT (02:06 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.4 miles (2.2 km)

Path width

286 yards (262 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lincoln County

Touchdown point

35.050, -86.492

Lift-off point

35.046, -86.469

Record number

2405082002-01

142 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• Uprooted trees to the left & right.
• 75% of the roof peeled back or removed. Complete loss of roof to shed with supporting wooden framework damaged.
• Large tree uprooted or snapped. 300 yards to left of road
• Trees uprooted or snapped near base. Damage trail follows along small creek to left

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

A significant outbreak of tornadoes occurred in two waves during the evening of the 8th and early morning hours of the 9th. The first wave occurred as multiple supercell thunderstorms developed across southern middle Tennessee and far north central Alabama. These storms moved east during the evening hours, producing ## tornadoes in southern middle Tennessee.||A break in the activity was then followed by a line of thunderstorms that dropped southeast through southern middle Tennessee into north central and northeast Alabama after Midnight through the early morning hours. The line produced ## tornadoes in southern middle Tennessee, a couple of which continued into northeast Alabama.

A tornado touched down near Raby Road about 0.5 miles before the intersection of Corders Crossroads Road. The tornado uprooted trees along Raby Road and then intensified to an EF-1 with wind speeds up to 105 mph as it moved southeast. Almost 75% of a roof was removed from a two-person dwelling and the entire roof along with some rafters were torn off of a large storage shed. Additional trees were uprooted and snapped as the tornado moved southeast. The tornado knocked over a power pole and produced structural damage to a house on Warren lane.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:26 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:16 UTC and running to 03:11 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:42 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.

Fayetteville (FYM), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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 2024 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

52 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.