EF2 Tornado — Rutherford, Tennessee

2018-11-06 · near Newtown, Rutherford, Tennessee

Event narrative

The Christiana tornado first touched down in far northern Bedford County southwest of Kimmons Road at Longview Road, damaging an outbuilding and blowing down a few trees. This small but very intense tornado moved northeast and quickly increased in intensity to EF-2 as it approached the Bedford/Rutherford County line, severely damaging two homes on the south side of Kingdom Road/Midland Fosterville Road. The tornado then crossed the road into Rutherford County, where a small but well-built brick home had its roof blown off and brick walls blown in. One wall fell onto the homeowner causing minor injuries. Further to the northeast on Williams Road, one barn was heavily damaged and another completely destroyed. The narrow but strong EF-2 tornado continued northeast, carving a well-defined path through forests before striking a new 3000 square foot home on the west side of Midland Crescent Road. This large house, which was poorly attached to its cinder-block foundation, was lifted almost completely intact, flipped upside down, and rotated 90 degrees as it was blown to the north-northwest. One woman inside the home was killed. Numerous trees continued to be blown down further to the northeast across Jones Road. Upon reaching Rock Springs Midland Road, another home that was built in the 1800s took a direct hit from the tornado, losing its roof and all of the third story. The homeowners inside received the warning and took appropriate shelter on the lowest floor, escaping uninjured. Two silos and a barn just north of the home were de-roofed, and several nearby trees were blown down. Curving more to the east-northeast, two 70 foot-tall silos and two sheet metal barns located northwest of Rock Springs Midland Road at Gray Fox Drive were completely destroyed. Another smaller barn was destroyed and adjacent home received roof damage north of Eagle Creek Road. As the tornado crossed a northward bend in Rock Springs Road, a detached garage was completely destroyed while a home suffered minor roof damage. Further to the east, an outbuilding and mobile home were heavily damaged, with debris being blown up to 200 yards to the east. The tornado continued east-northeast, causing minor exterior damage to a home and damaging the roof of a barn. Approaching Rock Springs Midland Road, the tornado completely destroyed a small home on the south side of the roadway, with debris being blown in a cyclonic curved path 200 yards off to the east. The tornado finally weakened to EF-1 as it crossed Rock Springs Midland Road yet again, overturning an old, small mobile home on the north side of the road just west of Highway 231. Two women inside the mobile home were injured. The tornado weakened further as it continued east of Highway 231 where part of the roof of a barn was blown off and several trees were blown down. A few more trees and outbuildings were damaged along Highway 269 and Christiana Lowe Road before the tornado lifted just east of Woodfin Road. The total path length for this tornado in both Bedford and Rutherford Counties was 10.49 miles. The end point and path of this tornado was extended by 2 miles further eastward in May 2020 due to newly available high resolution satellite imagery.

Wider weather episode

A line of severe thunderstorms called a Quasi-linear Convective System (QLCS) developed across west Tennessee and moved eastward across Middle Tennessee during the late evening hours on Monday, November 5, 2018 into the early morning hours on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. This system spawned at least 10 tornadoes across Middle Tennessee that occurred in the darkness of night, including an EF-2 tornado that struck the Christiana area of Rutherford County, which unfortunately killed one woman and injured three others. Other tornadoes in this outbreak affected central Kentucky, northern and central Alabama, Mississippi and northern Louisiana. This tornado outbreak was the worst to affect Middle Tennessee since the December 23, 2015 tornado outbreak, which also occurred at night during the secondary severe weather season that occurs in the fall and early winter.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.6712, -86.5074)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 794526. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.