EF0 tornado in Putnam County, Tennessee

An EF-0 tornado touched down near the Smith/Putnam County line northwest of Buffalo Valley and then moved east-northeast across very hilly terrain, taking down several trees in the process. Several homes suffered roof damage and some outbuildings were damaged on St. Marys Road, and numerous trees were blown down. The tornado continued across Highway 96 to Rock Springs Road with continued tree damage and minor damage to outbuildings, before lifting just west of Stanton Road.

From the late evening hours on March 2 into the early morning hours on March 3, supercell thunderstorms developed and spawned tornadoes across southeast Missouri, southern Kentucky, Tennessee, and central Alabama. One of these supercells formed near the Mississippi River in west Tennessee, then tracked eastward across the entire length of the state just north of the Interstate 40 corridor, spawning 10 tornadoes and dropping large hail bigger than the size of baseballs. Seven of these tornadoes touched down across Middle Tennessee, resulting in widespread damage, 307 injuries and 24 fatalities. An additional fatality and 2 more injuries occurred in Benton County in west Tennessee. These tornadoes were the worst seen in Tennessee since the devastating tornadoes of April 27, 2011 across east Tennessee, as well as the Super Tuesday tornadoes of February 5-6, 2008. Total damage estimates from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency across Middle Tennessee reached $1.6 billion.