Severe WX March 3-4, 2020 Severe Weather (Central Tennessee)

[Equus]

There we go. Precisely as expected I think.

 

[warneagle]

Just like 4/16/98, a strong tornado passing through Nashville majorly overshadowed violent damage elsewhere, though I think Cookeville was far more deadly than the 1998 F5

Yeah, the Lawrence County F5 didn't really affect many populated areas.

 

[pohnpei]

To me, the structure damage of dayton seems only in mid range EF3 and linwood also dont seem too strong with only one EF4 damage yet two cars left behind on the slab and the shrubs around largely unaffected.Both of them lack of violent car damage which beauregard had a lot.

 

[Jacob]

Let’s turn the attention to OHX being slow to warn this going into Putnam County after it dropping a major tornado through a metro area and holding a debris signature over tens of miles.

5 minute lead time for a tornado at 2am? Who can jump up in time from a deep sleep and gather their family and get them to the shelter with a 5 minute lead time? In this case, it appears the case of “little warning” is actually the case. And the death toll of this is a case of a failure by the system that is supposed to prevent this.

There was only a 5 minute lead time for the Cookeville area? I didn't realize that. Nashville obviously had plenty of warning, but since like most I found out about it yesterday morning, I had assumed the supercell had mostly maintained itself and had TOR warnings all the way as it continued east.

 

[Equus]

There was a 15-20 minute I think break in tornado warnings between Lebanon and Cookeville when the cell reorganized, it ramped back up with a debris sig in like two frames right before it headed into Cookeville

 

[Kory]

There was only a 5 minute lead time for the Cookeville area? I didn't realize that. Nashville obviously had plenty of warning, but since like most I found out about it yesterday morning, I had assumed the supercell had mostly maintained itself and had TOR warnings all the way as it continued east.

They dropped the warning like Equus said because the debris signature went away for a few scans but the meso was still spinning like a top. Given the history of the cell, I think it was a bit irresponsible to drop the warnings.

 

[Jacob]

There was a 15-20 minute I think break in tornado warnings between Lebanon and Cookeville when the cell reorganized, it ramped back up with a debris sig in like two frames right before it headed into Cookeville

I searched twitter and found radar images of it. Has to be the least impressive velocity signature I've ever seen for a violent tornado. It's obviously a failure on OHX for not warning them in time, but I'm not sure I can say I really blame them by looking at the radar signatures west of Cookeville.

*this statement is based on a grainy loop i found on twitter

 

[Equus]

Yeah the debris signature and midlevel meso were impressive but reflectivity and low level velocity were definitely not representative at all, still given the history of the cell it was probably dropped too fast

 

[Equus]

 

[akt1985]

Archived coverage from WTVF as the tornado hit Nashville and Cookeville.

 

[tennessee storm chaser]

Source for news of EF4 rating assigned in Cookeville? Not hearing anything.

nws Nashville has officially labeled Putnam county tn tornado ef4, so they upgraded it

 

[Timhsv]

Wonder why though NWS Nashville never issued a Tornado Emergency? At least I never saw the language.

 

[GA Stormchaser]

Archived coverage from WTVF as the tornado hit Nashville and Cookeville.

I'm spoiled watching James Spann on 4/27. I found myself shouting at the on air meteorologist during her coverage...."Keep the skycam fullscreen !!!!" and who cares about the hail.....stay on the Tornado.

 

[ghost]

I'm not clear on this yet... was there one long track tornado that hit Nashville and then went through Cookeville? Or were there 2 separate tornadoes?

 

[Equus]

Should be two, the more I look at radar loops the whole cell reorganized and Cookeville might not even be from the same meso

 

[Peter Griffin]

I'm not clear on this yet... was there one long track tornado that hit Nashville and then went through Cookeville? Or were there 2 separate tornadoes?

2 separate. Nashville tornado EF3 165mph. Cookeville tornado EF4 175mph.

Nashville tornado was on the ground for 50.25 miles. I believe I read somewhere that would be 3rd place for longest track TN tornadoes.

They are still working out track length/width on the Cookeville tornado.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

[Equus]

Have we even had another day with multiple 165mph+ surveyed tornadoes since June 2014? If not wow. The night of the Nashville tornado was NOT the night I expected that to change.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Have we even had another day with multiple 165mph+ surveyed tornadoes since June 2014? If not wow. The night of the Nashville tornado was NOT the night I expected that to change.

Right? You'd look for something like that on a day with apocalyptic wording and maxed-out probabilities for days in advance, like last 5/20.

 

[Jacob]

Right? You'd look for something like that on a day with apocalyptic wording and max-out probabilities for days in advance, like last 5/20.

This might be one of the bigger busts by the SPC, just in the opposite direction from what we normally consider a bust. EF-3 going through a major metropolitan area that was in the 2% tornado probabilties area, and an EF-4 that wasn't even in the 2% tornado probabilities.

And to pile on them, apparently the couple small tornadoes that hit in west-central AL Tuesday morning were also outside of the 2% probability area.

This event will be a case study for a long time.

 

[warneagle]

This might be one of the bigger busts by the SPC, just in the opposite direction from what we normally consider a bust. EF-3 going through a major metropolitan area that was in the 2% tornado probabilties area, and an EF-4 that wasn't even in the 2% tornado probabilities.

And to pile on them, apparently the couple small tornadoes that hit in west-central AL Tuesday morning were also outside of the 2% probability area.

This event will be a case study for a long time.

Someone could probably get a good doctoral dissertation out of this and the Beauregard event.