Lightning Strike in Tennessee, August 8, 2001

Name: Lightning Strike in Tennessee, August 8, 2001
Start: 2001-08-08T12:30
End: 2001-08-08T12:30
Location: Tennessee

August 8, 2001 · NWS OHX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 2
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Nashville, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 8, 9:45 AM CST, 2 hours 45 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 8, 9:45 AM CST, 2 hours 45 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN
1045 AM CDT WED AUG 8 2001

SATELLITE AND RADAR SHOW CONVECTION DEVELOPING IN THE AREA OF THE
TENNESSEE RIVER TO THE WEST OF BNA AND ALSO IN THE LOWER CUMBERLAND
PLATEAU AND ADJACENT FOOTHILLS. WITH MORNING SOUNDING SHOWING 2.20
INCHES PW AND K INDEX OVER 40...SEEMS TO ARGUE FOR RAINING POPS.
WITH MODELS MOVING THE SFC LOW CENTERED OVER THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL
TO THE EAST SLOWLY...WOULD TEND TO BUMP POPS UP TO LIKELY.

MAX TEMPS LOOK OK.

WILL UPDATE SHORTLY.

.BNA...NONE.

JLM

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.

Lightning, Williamson

When: August 8, 12:30 PM CST
Where: Williamson County, Fairview
Injuries: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.894, -86.899 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

2 people were injured in their basement from ball lightning. They had to be life-flighted to a nearby hospital. The ball lightning peeled the bark off a tree, and then flashed through the crawl space of a nearby house under construction, hurting 2 workers. A plumber, who was under the house at the time, but not injured said, "I felt something slide by my arm, and it made my hair stand up. There was a big blue flame, and it rolled through the center of the house. It was like a big, blue ball."

What these are

Lightning: A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Tennessee in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Tennessee, August 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5264942.