EF1 tornado in Humphreys County, Tennessee

An EF1 tornado began around 1 mile west-southwest of Hurricane Mills and moved eastward before lifting 4 miles east-northeast of town. Approximately 500 trees were snapped or uprooted along the path of the tornado through Hurricane Mills. A barn was also destroyed and several homes and other buildings suffered significant roof damage at the Loretta Lynn Ranch and Campground area. The tornado crossed Highway 13 and continued eastward along Stewart Branch Road, with hundreds more trees snapped and uprooted. The tornado lifted west of Bold Spring Road. Aerial imagery from Google Earth greatly assisted with this storm survey.

A powerful upper level trough moved across the United States from Tuesday, January 29th into Wednesday, January 30th. This system contained unusually strong winds aloft, with wind speeds of 80 mph just 2500 feet above the surface and up to 150 mph at 20,000 feet. A record warm airmass with temperatures in the 60s and 70s spread northward ahead of the system into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, bringing weak atmospheric instability into the region. As a powerful cold front moved eastward across Middle Tennessee during the early morning hours of January 30, the strong low level jet ahead of the front caused strong gradient winds of 40 to 65 mph at the surface, resulting in several reports of wind damage. A peak sustained south wind of 45 mph with a peak gust of 64 mph was measured by the ASOS at the Nashville International Airport around 315 AM CST in association with these intense gradient winds. A line of showers and thunderstorms known as a Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) developed along the front near the Tennessee River and raced eastward through the area between 2 AM and 6 AM, producing at least 23 tornadoes and widespread wind damage. This severe weather event resulted in 1 fatality and at least 3 injuries across the Mid State. The total of 23 tornadoes made the January 30, 2013 event the largest January tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee history. It also made January 30, 2013 the second biggest outbreak of tornadoes for any month in Middle Tennessee history.