As a area of showers and thunderstorms moved across western portions of Middle Tennessee during the late afternoon hours on Thursday, March 8th, a flash flooding event occurred in the city of Clarksville in Montgomery County.
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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.
The episode as NWS OHX wrote it up.
As a area of showers and thunderstorms moved across western portions of Middle Tennessee during the late afternoon hours on Thursday, March 8th, a flash flooding event occurred in the city of Clarksville in Montgomery County.
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 Mar 8, 3:48 PM CST, 1 hour 8 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN 348 PM CST THU MAR 8 2012 .DISCUSSION... RAINFALL COVERAGE CONTINUES ACROSS MUCH OF THE MID STATE. COLD FRONT HAS NOW PUSHED THROUGH THE BNA AREA. MSAS SHOWING GOOD PRESSURE RISES WEST AND NORTHWEST OF THE FRONT. THUS...FRONT IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE AREA BY THIS EVENING. WILL THEREFORE LIKELY SEE THE RAINFALL COVERAGE SPREAD SOUTH AND EASTWARD. LIGHTNING RETURNS ARE NOTED SO CANNOT RULE OUT ISOL TO SCATTERED TSTMS...ESPECIALLY SOUTHERN HALF THROUGH THE LATE AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EVENING. FOR THE TONIGHT FORECAST INCLUDING LATE THIS AFTERNOON...INITIAL THINKING IS TO GO 70+ POPS NW AND CATEGORICAL ELSEWHERE. WILL ADHERE LARGELY TO 3-4 PM RADAR TRENDS FOR THE FINAL POP INCLUSION. OTHERWISE...POPS TO DROP DOWN SIGNIFICANTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT SO THAT ZONE WORDING WILL REQUIRE SOME EVENING WORDING FOR THE SHOWERS. AS FOR RAINFALL AMOUNTS...AFTER 00Z WE ARE LOOKING AT AROUND ONE HALF INCH SOUTHEAST HALF WITH A TENTH TO A HALF INCH NORTHWEST HALF. FFG SUGGESTS THAT THE ADDITIONAL PRECIP WILL BE WELL BELOW FLASH FLOOD CRITERIA. ADVISORY FLOOD PRODUCTS SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT IF NEEDED. COOLER AIR WILL WORK IN BEHIND THE FRONT WITH LOW TEMPS DOWN INTO THE UPPER 30S TO LOWER 40S BY MORNING. GFS SUGGEST THAT THE 850 MB BOUNDARY WILL STRENGTHEN OVERNIGHT AS SOME UPPER LEVEL ENERGY INTENSIFIES. HOWEVER...THE POSITIONING OF THAT LOWER LEVEL BOUNDARY WILL BE SOUTH OF MIDDLE TN BY 12Z. CLEARING SKIES EXPECTED ON FRIDAY WITH MOSTLY SUNNY SKIES INTO SATURDAY. IN THE EXT FCST...A NEARLY CUTOFF UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM OVER THE SOUTHWESTERN U.S. WILL SLOWLY WORK EASTWARD ON SUNDAY AND MONDAY. DEEP SOUTHERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL PUSH A WARM FRONT BACK TO THE NORTH AND BRING ABOUT AN INCREASE IN MOISTURE BY MONDAY. BERMUDA HIGH WILL THEN SET UP THEREBY REVEALING A LATE SPRING PATTERN AS OPPOSED TO EARLY MARCH. THUS...MOIST...WARM CONDITIONS TO PREVAIL THROUGH THE EXTENDED. FRONTAL BOUNDARIES FOR THE MOST PART ARE REMOVED FROM THE EQUATION. HOWEVER...UPPER LEVEL PATTERN SHOWING A CONTINUOUS INFLUX OF UPPER IMPULSES WITHIN THE SOUTHERLY JET. FOR THE EXT TEMPS...TEMPS WILL BE A GOOD 15 DEGREES OR SO ABOVE NORMAL. WILL IN FACT LEAN TOWARD HPC NUMBERS AND GO A DEGREE OR TWO HIGHER THAN THE MEX. .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... NASHVILLE 37 59 31 63 / 90 10 05 0 CLARKSVILLE 35 58 28 61 / 80 10 05 0 CROSSVILLE 38 54 30 58 / 100 20 05 0 COLUMBIA 40 60 32 65 / 100 20 05 05 LAWRENCEBURG 42 60 32 66 / 100 30 05 05 WAVERLY 37 59 30 64 / 80 10 05 05 && .OHX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NONE. && 21
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN 500 AM CST THU MAR 8 2012 TNZ005>011-022>034-056>066-075-077>080-093>095-091100- STEWART-MONTGOMERY-ROBERTSON-SUMNER-MACON-CLAY-PICKETT-BENTON- HOUSTON-HUMPHREYS-DICKSON-CHEATHAM-DAVIDSON-WILSON-TROUSDALE- SMITH-JACKSON-PUTNAM-OVERTON-FENTRESS-PERRY-HICKMAN-LEWIS- WILLIAMSON-MAURY-MARSHALL-RUTHERFORD-CANNON-DE KALB-WHITE- CUMBERLAND-BEDFORD-COFFEE-WARREN-GRUNDY-VAN BUREN-WAYNE-LAWRENCE- GILES- 500 AM CST THU MAR 8 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MIDDLE TENNESSEE. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FOR LOCATIONS SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 40 AND WEST OF INTERSTATE 65 THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING. MAIN THREATS FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL. OTHER LOCATIONS ACROSS MIDDLE TENNESSEE COULD EXPERIENCE SOME STRONG THUNDERSTORMS... WITH GUSTY WINDS AND SMALL HAIL THE MAIN CONCERNS. ALSO...SOME LOW LYING LOCATIONS AND OTHER LOCATIONS THAT ARE GENERALLY PRONE TO FLASH FLOODING COULD EXPERIENCE AT LEAST SOME MINOR FLOODING THROUGH TONIGHT DUE TO A SLOW MOVING FRONTAL SYSTEM THAT WILL MOVE THROUGH THE MID STATE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... SPOTTERS AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT HEAVY RAINFALL AMOUNTS TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NASHVILLE. SPOTTER THUNDERSTORM REPORTING CRITERIA... TORNADO FUNNEL CLOUD FLOODING HAIL >= 1/2 INCH WINDS > 50 MPH (MEASURED) STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TREES OR POWER LINES DOWN 31
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Thomas Street in Clarksville was closed due to flooding.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Tennessee in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Tennessee, March 2012
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: 367943.