EF2 Tornado — Dickson, Tennessee

2021-12-11 · near Oak Grove, Dickson, Tennessee

Event narrative

This strong EF-2 tornado began in extreme northern Hickman County south of I-40, then tracked northeast across Plunders Creek Road and Brambling Springs Road where it blew down numerous trees. The tornado crossed I-40 near mile marker 166 along Piney Road where it snapped and uprooted dozens of trees on N Mount Sinai Road. The most intense damage occurred on Murrell Drive where multiple homes were heavily damaged or destroyed as they shifted off of their foundations, experienced extensive roof damage, or had exterior walls collapse. In addition to the structural damage, hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted in the same area. The tornado continued northeast damaging trees on Lena Road, and causing roof damage to homes on Stephen Street and Ridgecrest Drive. The storm crossed Highway 46, damaging the roof and exterior of the Renaissance Center and snapping electric poles along Printwood Drive. It weakened from that point, damaging multiple trees before dissipating just south of downtown Burns. The track of this tornado was extended using high resolution NASA satellite imagery, with a total path length of 10.87 miles.

Wider weather episode

One of the worst tornado outbreaks ever recorded in the United States struck the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and Tennessee Valley from the evening hours on December 10 into the morning hours on December 11, 2021. Across Middle Tennessee, a total of 16 tornadoes were determined to have touched down, making this the 5th largest tornado outbreak on record in Middle Tennessee. These tornadoes injured 8 people across Middle Tennessee and caused millions of dollars in property and tree damage in many counties. These tornadoes, combined with the 5 tornadoes that occurred just a few days earlier across Middle Tennessee on December 6, 2021, set a new record for the number of tornadoes during the month of December. In addition, many counties that had tornadoes in December 2021 had never recorded a tornado in the month of December before, including Stewart, Humphreys, Cheatham, Wilson, Trousdale, Overton, Pickett, Coffee, and Grundy Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.9855, -87.4632)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 999606. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.