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EF0 tornado in Rutherford County, Tennessee

Tornado February 6, 2019 · Rutherford County, Tennessee

EF0
Rating
1.2 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$25K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

An EF-0 tornado touched down along West Trimble Road just south of Milton and moved northeast across Halls Hill Pike before lifting south of Highway 96. One large barn west of Halls Hill Pike was destroyed, with debris from the barn blown up to 500 yards away. Two homes along Halls Hill Pike received minor roof damage, an outbuilding lost part of its roof, and a carport was destroyed. Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted along the narrow path.

The wider storm

Heavy rain and thunderstorms produced 2 tornadoes and widespread flash flooding across Middle Tennessee from the afternoon of February 6 through the early morning hours on February 7. A warm front that had moved northward into Kentucky early in the day on February 6 sank back southward to near the Interstate 40 corridor by the afternoon, sparking numerous showers and thunderstorms along and just north of the front. As the front effectively stalled in a west-to-east line along the Interstate 40 corridor, showers and storms continued to redevelop and move across the same areas. With rainfall rates approaching 1-2 per hour at times, this led to widespread flash flooding across Humphreys, Dickson, Cheatham, Davidson, Wilson, Smith, Jackson, Putnam, and Overton Counties. This flooding resulted in numerous closed roadways, dozens of water rescues, flooded homes and businesses, significant rises on area creeks and rivers, and unfortunately one fatality in Cheatham County. Total rainfall amounts ranged from 3 inches to nearly 7 inches across these counties. In addition to the flooding, thunderstorms produced two EF-0 tornadoes in Rutherford and Wilson Counties. Lightning also struck homes in Overton and Jackson counties, causing significant fire damage.

Began near Milton (35.9203, -86.1890).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 809627. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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