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EF0 tornado in Johnson County, Tennessee

Tornado May 12, 2017 · Johnson County, Tennessee

EF0

Rating

0.1 mi

Path length

40 yd

Path width

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 40 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

This was a very small and brief tornado that remained on the ground for less than 8 minutes and 250 yards while causing widespread roof damage to two homes, as well as completely destroying two sheds and a carport structure. Everyone interviewed stated that the system was rain shielded, thereby not allowing any witnesses to the event. The storm moved almost due east dropping out of the Holston Mountains and into the valley floor below where the brief EF-0 spun up before weakening into a straight line wind event with estimated winds of 50-70 mph for another one quarter mile. The straight line winds also caused some minor roof damage as well as completely destroying a dilapidated barn.

The wider storm

Scattered thunderstorms formed in the unstable air in the vicinity of a surface low pressure area riding along a weak frontal boundary. Some of the storms were slow moving and generated some minor nuisance flooding. There was even a weak tornado that developed over the extreme northeast corner of Tennessee.

Began near Shady Vly (36.5211, -81.9314).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 687939. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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