EF2 tornado, Woods Vly to Claylick, Tennessee, December 9, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 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. 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

EF2

Date

December 9, 2023

Touchdown

3:29 PM CST (21:29 UTC)

Lifted

3:39 PM CST (21:39 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Dickson County

Touchdown point

36.279, -87.414

Lift-off point

36.303, -87.314

Record number

2312091529-01

65 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• Debris carried into fields and trees
• Lots of tree damage in this area. Outbuilding seems to have only lost roof.
• House is completely destroyed and wiped off of foundation. Several large trees snapped and uprooted.
• A Frame home. Entire top half was ripped off and set 30 feet away. Couple survived in basement.

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

A major tornado outbreak impacted Middle Tennessee during the afternoon and evening hours of December 9, 2023. With a surface low pressure system situated over the Great Lakes area, a cold front was oriented north-to-south from the Great Lakes southward into the southeastern United States. Ahead of this cold front, southerly flow advected plenty of moisture into Middle Tennessee as the atmosphere destabilized. Meanwhile, a potent low-level jet resulted in an abundant amount of wind shear. This helped to set the stage for organized thunderstorms with a tornado threat. Thunderstorms began to cross the Tennessee River into the mid-state during the early afternoon hours. The first tornado of the day touched down in Indian Mound in Stewart County. That same supercell spawned another, more significant, tornado in Montgomery County that impacted Clarksville. This was the strongest tornado of the event, causing EF-3 damage before it continued its path into Kentucky. In total, six tornadoes were confirmed from this event, including another long-track EF-2 tornado that impacted Davidson, Sumner, and Trousdale counties which was warned with a Tornado Emergency. Unfortunately, seven people were killed during this event.

This EF-2 tornado touched down southwest of the intersection of Woods Valley Road and Bone Road, then moved east-northeast where it snapped a few pine trees and caused roof damage to a home. Continuing east-northeast, the tornado damaged a mobile home and outbuilding on Gamble Hollow Road. The tornado intensified to EF-2 as it crossed Highway 48, causing the most significant damage along its path as it completely removed the top level of a home, leaving only the lower exterior walls in place. Winds were estimated at 125 mph in this area. The tornado maintained its strength as it continued toward Freeman Loop, striking an A-frame house and ripping off the top half of the home. As it continued eastward, the tornado did substantial damage to another mobile home and snapped and uprooted dozens of trees along Freeman Loop before finally lifting after crossing Barton's Creek.

This tornado touched down in the Claylick community in eastern Dickson County, snapping and uprooting several trees and destroyed an outbuilding. It quickly intensified to low-end EF-2 strength as it crossed Nosegay Road and demolished a single-story manufactured home. The tornado continued to Pack Annex Road where it did minor damage to the tops of high-tension powerlines and continued to snap large trees as it moved northeast into Cheatham County. The tornado weakened and caused sporadic tree damage as it moved into Cheatham Wildlife Management Area. It strengthened once more, causing prolific tree damage and structure damage to homes along Dry Creek Road south of Ashland City. Just before leaving Cheatham County, the tornado caused minor outbuilding damage and snapped a few trees near River Road. At this point, the tornado Crossed into Davidson County and crossed the Cumberland River. On Pecan Valley Road, some structural damage was observed, but damage was consistent with a weakening tornado with maximum winds of 90 mph. The tornado lifted after crossing Old Hickory Boulevard, just north of Ashland City Highway.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:18 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:36 UTC and running to 23:38 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:03 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.

Dickson (M02), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:29 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 2023 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.