EF1 tornado in Sullivan County, Tennessee

Tornado July 27, 2014 · Sullivan County, Tennessee

EF1

Rating

7.6 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Sullivan County → Washington County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An EF1 tornado occurred approximately three miles west southwest of Colonial Heights. The tornado had estimated winds of 110 mph with a path length of 0.5 miles and a width of 50 yards. One house was heavily damaged and a few other houses and barns had some damage. Also, numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off.

The wider storm

A potent upper-level storm system impacted the region on Sunday, July 27th, bringing several rounds of severe weather along with locally heavy rainfall. Three tornadoes were observed across east Tennessee; one classified as a strong, EF-3 tornado with winds of 140 mph. Additionally, there were several reports of straight-line wind damage and large hail up 2 to 3 inches in diameter! A storm system of this magnitude is highly unusual for this time of year due to the strength of the front and the record cool temperatures it produced in the middle of the Summer season.

Began near Rock Spgs (36.4620, -82.5600).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Campbell County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 526273. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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