EF2 tornado in Grundy County, Tennessee

Although a NWS storm survey originally determined the damage path across Franklin, Coffee, and Grundy Counties to be one long-track tornado, high-resolution satellite imagery from NASA Sport and Google Earth in May 2019 clearly showed that the original track was actually two separate tornadoes. This major EF-2 tornado, which began in Franklin County near Tims Ford Lake, weakened considerably to EF-0 as it entered the extreme southeastern portion of Coffee County, with just a few trees blown down along Rutledge Hill Road. The worst damage was along Coker Road where a barn was destroyed, another barn suffered roof damage, and the front porch of a home was ripped off causing minor roof damage. After taking a sharp bend to the east, the tornado caused severe damage to an outbuilding on Boyd Road. Several outbuildings were destroyed and a house sustained roof damage when its front porch was ripped off. Numerous more trees were blown down further to the east on Rutledge Hill Road and along and onto I-24, which caused a multi-vehicle accident at mile marker 126. Another barn suffered roof damage on Sims Lane before the tornado moved into Grundy County. The tornado then intensified rapidly to EF-2 in extreme southwest Grundy County, with a nearly-finished brand new home almost completely destroyed on Conry Circle. Two nearby homes suffered significant roof and siding damage, and a barn lost nearly all of its roof. Debris from all of these buildings was blown up to 500 yards to the east and northeast. Further to the east, a mobile home on Frank Wilson Road was knocked off its piers into a garage. The tornado the tracked up and down a nearly 1600 foot tall ridge before reaching Homer White Road, heavily damaging two barns and destroying an outbuilding. Curving more to the northeast, the tornado ripped off the roof of a brick home on Highway 50. Luckily, the house occupants were taking shelter and were not injured. Two adjacent outbuildings were severely damaged, and other nearby homes and barns suffered minor damage. Debris from these buildings was blown up to 500 yards to the northeast. The tornado continued to cause a wide swath of wind damage to trees and buildings along Highway 50 before crossing Schoolhouse Hollow and Nunley Hollow and climbing nearly 1000 feet in elevation onto the Cumberland Plateau. Google Earth and NASA Sport satellite imagery showed hundreds of trees continued to be blown down off to the east as the tornado crossed Highway 108, Eagle Lake Road, and passed along the west side of Eagle Lake before finally lifting just north of Eagle Lake. Total path length of this tornado across Franklin County, southeast Coffee County, and into central Grundy County was 29.50 miles. Winds were estimated up to 115 mph.

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.