EF0 tornado, Bordeaux to Nashville Cornelia F, Tennessee, August 31, 2017

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. EF5over 200 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

EF0

Date

August 31, 2017

Touchdown

11:47 PM CDT (04:47 UTC)

Lifted

11:48 PM CDT (04:48 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Davidson County

Touchdown point

36.160, -86.708

Lift-off point

36.172, -86.716

Record number

1708312247-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Several small trees and branches snapped along river
• 18 wheeler blown over in parking lot

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

One week after Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the middle Texas coast, a weakened but still intense Tropical Depression Harvey moved across Middle Tennessee from Thursday August 31, 2017 into Friday September 1, 2017. Supercells rotating around Harvey spawned four weak tornadoes in Davidson, Maury, and Perry Counties. In addition, strong northeast winds up to 50 mph associated with the circulation of Harvey brought down numerous trees and power lines in areas along and west of I-65, knocking out power to thousands of residents. Finally, the heavy rainbands of Harvey produced 8-10 of rain in some areas, leading to major flash flooding of homes and roads. The flash flooding along with the strong winds continued into the morning hours on September 1.

A brief EF-1 tornado associated with Tropical Depression Harvey touched down in the Bordeaux area of northwest Nashville and moved to the northwest for over one-half mile. The tornado snapped or uprooted nearly 100 large mature hardwood trees on Hydesdale Lane, Drakes Branch Road, Setters Road, Enchanted Drive, and Queens Lane. A small portion of the roof was blown off a home on Setters Road north of Drakes Branch Road, and the carport of a home was destroyed on Queens Lane. The worst damage was to a wood frame home at 133 Queens Lane where a large portion of the roof was blown off. Maximum winds were estimated to be around 95 mph.

A brief, weak EF0 tornado touched down in southeast Nashville just north of Lebanon Pike near Omohundro Drive and moved north-northwest. Several trees were uprooted in all directions along Dahlia Drive and a small garage building was blown inwards. A few more trees were snapped and uprooted and a carport had minor sheet metal damage on Dahlia Circle. The most significant damage occurred at a warehouse on River Hills Drive where a large section of a wall was blown out and an 18 wheeler was flipped over. Several more trees were snapped along both sides of the Cumberland River and in the Shelby Bottoms Park before the tornado lifted.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 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), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 16 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:48 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 2017 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

15 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.