F3 tornado, Goodlettsville to Gallatin, Tennessee, April 7, 2006

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 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

April 7, 2006

Touchdown

2:08 PM CDT (19:08 UTC)

Path length

22.7 miles (36.5 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

7

Injuries

128

Property damage

$79 million

Counties

Davidson and Sumner counties

Touchdown point

36.320, -86.770

Lift-off point

36.400, -86.370

Record number

299

The tornado destroyed many residential homes in Goodlettsville. Significant damage was done to the Metro Baptist Church with part of the roof blown off and front of church blown away. This tornado destroyed 25 homes, 13 homes or businesses with major damage and 31 with moderate damage/.

This is where the tornado struck hit the hardest in Sumner County. It entered Hendersonville from Goodlettsville at 1312 CST, and struck Gallatin at 1325 CST. An aerial survey determined this tornado had a path length of 22.75 miles from Davidson County and into Sumner County. 7 people died directly as a result of the tornado. One woman, who was 83 years old, died of a heart attack the day the tornado swept through Gallatin, and is considered an indirect death due to the tornado causing her heart attack. All 7 fatalities happened in Gallatin. There was extensive damage to homes and businesses. 700 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in Sumner County. The City of Hendersonville had 80 homes destroyed, As a result, Hendersonville city officials are considering installing tornado sirens in the city.Volunteer State Community College in southwest Gallatin was heavily damaged as were several car dealerships across the road. Vol State reopend 10 days after the tornado struck on Monday, April 17. There were about 400 faculty, staff and students on campus at the time the tornado struck. that day. Ms. Angie Jowers, public relations director for the college, stated that having routine tornado safety drills paid off on April 7th. Mr. Steve Doremus, spokesman for the Sumner County Schools, said that all 25,500 students were safe from the tornado because of routine tornado drills done in the county's 42 schools. Vol State school officials placed damage at the campus around $56 million. There was $69 million in damage in Sumner County alone. One estimate for damage done by tornadoes across Middle Tennssee on April 7 was placed at $391 million. Unfortunately, at night, looters came out to Gallatin. A nightly curfew was imposed for a while to curb the looting. The National Guard was called in to help with security matters and debris removal. By May 4, 2006, 23 people were arrested for looting in Gallatin. Several people died inside their homes. A NWS Storm Survey Team discovered that 1/2 million dollar brick homes were not built as well as one might have expected. Cinder blocks were filled with concrete, and boards were nailed to the cinder block as the base for the foundation. The strong winds caused some brick homes to move off the cinder blocks and collapse. This was observed in the Woodhaven Subdivision in Gallatin.

The deaths

7 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:48 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:24 UTC and running to 00:49 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:32 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.

Nashville Metro (BNA), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:09 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

46 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.