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EF1 tornado in Clay County, Tennessee

Tornado December 11, 2021 · Clay County, Tennessee

EF1
Rating
5.8 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$500K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

This EF-1 tornado touched down in Hermitage Springs just south of Highway 52 where it uprooted trees. Moving along and just north of Highway 52, the tornado continued to blow down trees and causing shingle damage to multiple homes. The worst damage occurred along Old Clementsville Road where four large agricultural buildings were destroyed. The tornado continued northeast, damaging the roof of a home on Clementsville Road. Scattered tree damage was noted as the path continued into Monroe County, Kentucky, where it caused EF-0 damage to a barn and trees along Beech Groves Boles Road. The tornado continued to weaken as it moved northeast damaging a few trees before lifting near Verona Road east of Hestand, Kentucky. The path length in Tennessee was around 5.78 miles, with a total path length of 11.16 miles.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Hermitage Spgs (36.5809, -85.7738).

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 999753. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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