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EF1 tornado in Shelby County, Tennessee

Tornado October 21, 2019 · Shelby County, Tennessee

EF1

Rating

7.4 mi

Path length

250 yd

Path width

$1.5M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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

Tornado began at the Memphis International Airport and lifted in the Balmoral area of East Memphis. The most significant damage occurred at the Cottonwood Apartments. Significant roof damage occurred at the apartments. Numerous trees and business signs down along the track.

The wider storm

A cold front moved through during the early morning of October 21st and interacted with an unstable airmass in place over the Delta region. A line of showers and thunderstorms developed along the front. Several of the storms were severe with damaging winds and a few weak tornadoes.

Began near (mem)memphis Intl Ar (35.0452, -89.9839).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Tipton County EF0 Lauderdale County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 862096. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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