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

Ok so I'm not crazy then, good to know lol, I don't mind EF4 for vegetation damage and have no doubt that it was violent/warranted but I spent forever looking for photos of super high end structural damage there. Clears that up
 
buckeye05 said:
Dayton local here. The EF4 rating was very liberal for that tornado. I surveyed the EF4 path segment on my own time. There were no totally collapsed structures in typical EF4 fashion. The rating was mostly based on a massive swath of extreme debarking along the Stillwater River. Based on that, I’d say winds were over 170, but I still feel a little odd about the rating with the lack of real EF4 structural damage.

Cookeville on the other hand is looking like textbook EF4.
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Cookeville tornado is getting upgraded to ef4 word just coming in
 
buckeye05 said:
Dayton local here. The EF4 rating was very liberal for that tornado. I surveyed the EF4 path segment on my own time. There were no totally collapsed structures in typical EF4 fashion. The rating was mostly based on a massive swath of extreme debarking along the Stillwater River. Based on that, I’d say winds were over 170, but I still feel a little odd about the rating with the lack of real EF4 structural damage.

Cookeville on the other hand is looking like textbook EF4.
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That's odd given how nit-picky NOAA seems to have gotten with most of the ratings in recent years. Maybe that's a sign they are loosening up a bit, or maybe just a sign of the wild inconsistency between offices that really needs to go away.
 
I don't even mind being conservative, it's the massive office to office subjectivity that irritates me. BMX for example seems like they've decided to go an super conservative route lately and some of their own ratings from a decade ago probably wouldn't stand today.
 
Equus said:
I don't even mind being conservative, it's the massive office to office subjectivity that irritates me. BMX for example seems like they've decided to go an super conservative route lately and some of their own ratings from a decade ago probably wouldn't stand today.
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Yeah there was a person who wanted EF3 for Beauregard last year.
 
Seriously? Can't say I'm even surprised more than frustrated

Reminder the fatal 2/6 Spring Hill tornado that obliterated mobile home frames (mid EF2) got an EF1 rating from BMX

 
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Side tangent, but I’m so glad we can finally discuss ratings without people jumping down our throat with the whole condescending “You weren’t there! You can’t tell anything by pictures! You don’t know what you’re talking about” attitude.

Weather geeks are educated enough about the EF scale these days that they understand the nuances of anchoring, foundation types, and context. All of which can usually be ascertained by photographic analysis.

sorry, rant over. Carry on.

**Admin Edit/WesL - Removed personal reference.
 
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Kory said:
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.
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Also, the SPC will have to reevaluate themselves after this system. Cookeville was not even in a 2% tornado probability area, and to my knowledge that area east of Nashville was not under a tornado watch. They have to do a better job of understanding these type of systems.
 
Putnam was indeed not in the original watch
ww0036_overview_wou.gif
I think OHX may have extended it locally, but the original watch was not far enough east to cover a violent tornado
 
mbrewer said:
Also, the SPC will have to reevaluate themselves after this system. Cookeville was not even in a 2% tornado probability area, and to my knowledge that area east of Nashville was not under a tornado watch. They have to do a better job of understanding these type of systems.
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Would it be wrong to suggest that southeastern events (and cold season events more generally) are understudied relative to plains/warm season events? This seems to be true to me, at least anecdotally. I’m not suggesting it’s bias or anything—just that they haven’t been studied as deeply for whatever reason.
 
warneagle said:
Would it be wrong to suggest that southeastern events (and cold season events more generally) are understudied relative to plains/warm season events? This seems to be true to me, at least anecdotally. I’m not suggesting it’s bias or anything—just that they haven’t been studied as deeply for whatever reason.
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Not sure what has come out of the Vortex-SE study from a couple of years ago (it may still be ongoing), but there just haven't been many in-the-field studies in the south. The logistics make it more difficult compared to the Plains.
I do know there are some efforts to build parameters to identify threats in low CAPE systems, like SHERBE and MOSHE, but I don't know if those are even taken seriously among forecasters just yet.
 
Update from Nashville -

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN
420 PM CST WED MAR 4 2020

...UPDATE ON DAVIDSON/WILSON/SMITH COUNTY TORNADO...

NWS SURVEY TEAMS HAVE CONCLUDED THAT ONE LONG-TRACK TORNADO
OCCURRED IN DAVIDSON, WILSON, AND SMITH COUNTIES ON TUESDAY
MORNING. THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO STRETCHED ROUGHLY 50.25 MILES
FROM BEGINNING TO END, STARTING IN THE JOHN C TUNE AREA AND ENDING
3.50 MILES WEST OF GORDONSVILLE.

SURVEY TEAMS ARE CONTINUING TO WORK ON WHERE THIS TORNADO BEGAN
NEAR THE JOHN C TUNE AREA. THE FINAL TORNADO PATH REMAINS SUBJECT
TO REVISION AS TEAMS COMPLETE THEIR SURVEY.
 
IMO, no question this was an EF-4. I'll leave the details to our more knowledgeable members and the experts.
 
Do you all think the NWS and TV stations got the warning out fast enough for those especially in Nashville and the Cookeville area? I know I was watching WKRN and they were watching the storm about 50 miles west of Nashville when it was tornado warned and Davis Nolan said we need to watch it incase it causes problems in Nashville. So WKRN done good by saying that.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 
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Equus said:
Two fatalities here, apparently a slabbed house that may have been bolted (check the sill plate near the garage) aaand car tossed around. Tragic violent hallmarks

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This is an interesting story. CBSN interviewed the residents of this property and they survived, ejected from the home. The two bodies found amongst the debris on the property were neighbors who landed there.
 
Another thing I feel is the TV stations focused on the damage and had reporters out in Nashville doing live scenes while the tornado was still doing damage to the east. Thus taking away coverage on the tornado doing damage to the east. I think they could have waited til the threat was out of their tv coverage area before they done live feeds of the damage. Just my opinion. Maybe I am wrong?

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 
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
 
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