EF3 tornado in Claiborne County, Tennessee

Tornado July 27, 2014 · Claiborne County, Tennessee

EF3

Rating

4.7 mi

Whole path

800 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 EF3 tornado with estimated winds between 140 and 150 mph with a path length of 1.81 miles and 800 yard width, uprooted numerous trees and snapped several along the entire path. Structural damage varied from minor to major with the most significant damage noted in the Speedwell area near the end of the track.

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 Speedwell (36.4495, -83.9318).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Sullivan County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 526506. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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