F2 tornado, Green Hill to Nashville, Tennessee, April 16, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F2

Date

April 16, 1998

Touchdown

4:20 PM CDT (21:20 UTC)

Path length

27.7 miles (44.6 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3.0 million

Counties

Davidson and Wilson counties

Touchdown point

36.180, -86.680

Lift-off point

36.270, -86.230

Record number

933

This tornado was the same one that struck downtown Nashville. The tornado was seen moving from west to east about a mile south of the NWS office. The tornado caused many trees to be uprooted, power lines were knocked down, signs damaged or blown down, and there was roof damage to homes. The Mt. Juliet Little League field was littered with aluminum and lumber blown from Marvin's Lumber Yard. Part of a roof was taken off First Bank in Mt. Juliet. The tornado continued into southern Trousdale county.

Trees were blown down. There was some damage to homes from fallen trees. This tornado was not as strong as the first. It started between downtown and Nashville International Airport and continued into Wilson county.

This tornado travelled just south of Lebanon Pike and did damage to homes and businesses in West Lebanon. The TRW plant received some damage on HWY 70 Bypass. Trees were uprooted and homes sustained roof damage. There was extensive agricultural losses. Approximately $60,000 worth of fencing was destroyed or damaged. 20 hogs were killed. Farmers lost 26 outbuildings, and 21 vehicles were damaged.

EMA official reported a tornado touchdowns at 12th and Charlotte and 6th and Union. Damage was mainly blown out windows and downed trees and power lines.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

16 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:04 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:50 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:06 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 10 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:20 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

41 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.