EF0 Tornado — Dekalb, Tennessee

2021-05-04 · near Smithville Muni Arpt, Dekalb, Tennessee

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.0021, -85.8028)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 957719. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.