EF2 Tornado — Robertson, Tennessee

2023-12-09 · near Springfield, Robertson, Tennessee

Event narrative

This EF-2 tornado touched down north of C.M. Martin Road to the west of Highway 431 where it blew down a few trees. The tornado crossed Highway 431 south of Main Street where it knocked over some power poles, then continued to blow down trees east of the highway. The tornado moved into southern Springfield near Fairway Trail and Kemper Court, snapping and uprooting trees along many residential streets and causing minor damage to a few homes. More significant damage to homes occurred further northeast on Rudolph Street and Brentlawn Drive. The tornado strengthened as it crossed Highway 41 near the Kroger shopping center, with numerous businesses damaged from high-end EF1 to low-end EF2 intensity (110-115 mph). 25 vehicles in the Kroger parking lot were flipped with some thrown into nearby ditches. The tornado then crossed the railroad tracks behind Kroger and reached its peak intensity as it entered an industrial area, where multiple warehouse structures were heavily damaged. With the majority of these metal building systems having Grade 5 bolts holding down the columns, winds were estimated at EF-2/120 mph in this area. The tornado then struck a fire department and strip mall (EF-1/110 mph) and bent a steel transmission pole at a power substation (EF-2/115 mph) on the east side of the industrial park. As the tornado continued northeast, it significantly weakened but still uprooted trees and caused minor roof damage to homes on Greystone Drive and Sloan Lane. On Roy Pitt Road, the tornado destroyed a two car garage and rolled a trailer on its side (EF-1). The tornado continued to blow down trees as it moved northeast across Highway 76E near Oakland Road before finally lifting north of Sloan Road.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.4689, -86.9078)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1144376. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.