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EF0 tornado in Dekalb County, Tennessee

Tornado May 4, 2021 · Dekalb County, Tennessee

EF0
Rating
4.8 mi
Path length
200 yd
Path width
$25K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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 high-end EF-0 tornado touched down along Coconut Ridge Road north of Smithville, blowing down several trees. Moving southeast, the tornado continued to blow down dozens of trees as it crossed Big Hurricane Road and Highway 56. The tornado then moved along and just south of Holiday Haven Road, damaging several homes and barns and continuing to blow down trees. The tornado knocked down more trees as it passed across Eagle Creek and Johnson Ridge Road before lifting on Center Hill Lake. The path of this tornado was visible on Sentinel satellite imagery.

The wider storm

A QLCS (Quasi-linear Convective System) moved across Middle Tennessee during the early morning hours of May 4, 2021. This line of thunderstorms spawned a total of 14 EF-0 tornadoes throughout Middle Tennessee, at least 4 of which were captured on video by local residents. In addition to the tornadoes, significant straight-line wind damage also affected many other areas of Middle Tennessee, and was just as damaging as the tornadoes in many cases. Thankfully, no injuries or deaths were reported.

Special thanks goes to Middle Tennessee emergency management, tSpotter coordinators, and the public for their assistance and helpful information with these difficult and lengthy storm surveys.

Began near Smithville Muni Arpt (36.0021, -85.8028).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 957719. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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