TornadoLookup

Home / Tennessee / Montgomery

EF0 tornado in Montgomery County, Tennessee

Tornado December 9, 2023 · Montgomery County, Tennessee

EF0
Rating
8.8 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width
$550K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Stewart County → Montgomery County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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

The tornado first touched down just east of the Cumberland River near Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge off of Commissary Hollow Road. Minor damage was observed to trees with a home sustaining significant roof damage. the tornado continued east-northeast where dozens more trees were snapped and uprooted along Lower Cross Creek Road. Once the tornado entered Indian Mound, more trees were either uprooted or snapped along Highway 46. The tornado then intensified on Red Top Road and Gillum Hollow Road where a church overhang awning and greenhouses were damaged. A few more barns and outbuildings were damaged along Gillum Hollow Road with several instances of uprooted and snapped trees along its path including a tree falling onto a residence. The tornado finally began to weaken as it entered into far western portions of Montgomery County where only a few trees and large branches were broken. The tornado then lifted southeast of the Indian Mound Road and Liverpool Road intersection.

The wider storm

A major tornado outbreak impacted Middle Tennessee during the afternoon and evening hours of December 9, 2023. With a surface low pressure system situated over the Great Lakes area, a cold front was oriented north-to-south from the Great Lakes southward into the southeastern United States. Ahead of this cold front, southerly flow advected plenty of moisture into Middle Tennessee as the atmosphere destabilized. Meanwhile, a potent low-level jet resulted in an abundant amount of wind shear. This helped to set the stage for organized thunderstorms with a tornado threat. Thunderstorms began to cross the Tennessee River into the mid-state during the early afternoon hours. The first tornado of the day touched down in Indian Mound in Stewart County. That same supercell spawned another, more significant, tornado in Montgomery County that impacted Clarksville. This was the strongest tornado of the event, causing EF-3 damage before it continued its path into Kentucky. In total, six tornadoes were confirmed from this event, including another long-track EF-2 tornado that impacted Davidson, Sumner, and Trousdale counties which was warned with a Tornado Emergency. Unfortunately, seven people were killed during this event.

Began near Oakwood (36.5201, -87.6220).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1144350. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.