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EF3 tornado in Giles County, Tennessee

Tornado April 11, 2008 · Giles County, Tennessee

EF3
Rating
4.7 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

A low end EF3 tornado hit northwest Giles County near Liberty Hill. This was part of the same storm complex that hit Lawrence County. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. Many homes had roof damage. The hardest hit area was along Rhea Branch Rd. One residential home was completely leveled. Major damage occurred to the back of the Liberty Hill Baptist Church.

A newspaper article stated that 8 homes were completely destroyed, and 30 other homes had serious damage.

The wider storm

There were six confirmed tornadoes on April 11, 2008. Large hail and straight line winds were also reported.

Began near Liberty Hill (35.3321, -87.1979).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Lawrence CountyEF2 Bedford CountyEF1 Dickson CountyEF1 Warren CountyEF1 White CountyEF0 Marshall CountyEF0 Coffee County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 92475. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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