Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2024
EF0 tornado, Taylorsville to Bellwood, Tennessee, May 6, 2024
From Taylorsville to Bellwood, this EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Wilson County on May 6, 2024, touching down at 2:55 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- May 6, 2024
- Touchdown
- 2:55 PM CDT (19:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:56 PM CDT (19:56 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Wilson County
- Touchdown point
- 36.255, -86.183
- Lift-off point
- 36.257, -86.175
- Record number
- 2405061355-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A broken line of thunderstorm tracked eastward across Middle Tennessee on May 6, 2024. With plenty of instability and modest shear, these thunderstorms became strong to severe, especially across eastern Middle Tennessee. Several reports of wind damage and large hail up to two inches in diameter were received. Two tornadoes were also confirmed. One was an EF-0 near Lebanon, and the other was an EF-1 near Smithville.
A brief EF0 tornado touched down along Big Springs Road north of Old Rome Pike around seven miles northeast of Lebanon. Several videos of the tornado were taken from nearby residents and firefighters. The only known damage was to trees. Damages are a rough estimate.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:55 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:11 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:45 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OHX |
| 19:55 UTC | 20:11 UTC | Tornado Warning | OHX |
| 20:32 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OHX |
| 21:18 UTC | 21:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OHX |
| 21:47 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | OHX |
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 forecast that day
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 16:02 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 air that afternoon
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, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z
7.9 hours before the tornado, 40 km from the path. May 6, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 63 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -69 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 315 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 678 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 87 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 122 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z
4.1 hours after it, 40 km from the path. May 7, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 610 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1363 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1035 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 125 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 205 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 2.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.8 K/km
The radar
The Nashville radar (KOHX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:53 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Bethpage | Sumner, TN | Tspotter photo of a tree down on Rogana Rd at Rock Springs Rd. |
| 18:06 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bethpage | Sumner, TN | Tspotter photo of a large tree branch and power line down on Mount Vernon Rd at Old Highway 31E. |
| 19:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ese Lebanon | Wilson, TN | Facebook report of several trees blown down on South Cumberland Street in Lebanon. |
| 19:52 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Sse Lebanon | Wilson, TN | |
| 19:55 UTC | HAIL 1 | Lebanon | Wilson, TN | |
| 19:55 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Ene Lebanon | Wilson, TN | A brief EF0 tornado touched down along Big Springs Road north of Old Rome Pike around 7 miles northeast of Lebanon. Several videos of the tornado were taken from nearby residents and firefighters. The only known damage w |
| 19:57 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 4 E Lebanon | Wilson, TN | From social media. |
| 20:39 UTC | HAIL 0.7 | 7 Ese Gladeville | Wilson, TN | Social media report. |
| 21:14 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Se Baxter | Putnam, TN | mPing report of quarter sized hail. |
| 21:23 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wnw Smithville | De Kalb, TN | An EF1 tornado touched down east of Highway 70 in northwest Smithville then moved east paralleling Allen Ferry Rd. Numerous trees were broken, snapped and uprooted along the road and several farm buildings lost roofing. |
| 21:24 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nnw Smithville | De Kalb, TN | Off-duty employee and emergency manager report tornado. Video from social media also confirms. |
| 21:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 W Rural Hill | Davidson, TN | Facebook photo showed two trees snapped on Mount Juliet side of Percy Priest Lake. Location estimated based on radar. |
| 21:54 UTC | HAIL 1 | 5 E Smithville | De Kalb, TN | |
| 21:56 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 N Lebanon | Wilson, TN | Tspotter photo of a funnel cloud looking west from Maple Hill Road northwest of Lebanon. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 6, 2024
40 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 6 | 12:49 PM MDT | Unrated | Butte, SD | 3.5 | 10 | |||
| May 6 | 1:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Lincoln, NE | 0.9 | 10 | |||
| May 6 | 1:07 PM MDT | Unrated | Butte, SD | 10.5 | 10 | |||
| May 6 | 4:19 PM CDT | EF0 | Webster, NE | 7.0 | 40 | $20,000 | ||
| May 6 | 4:23 PM CDT | EF1 | DeKalb, TN | 3.2 | 150 | $300,000 | ||
| May 6 | 6:04 PM CDT | Unrated | Major, OK | 3.8 | 30 | |||
| May 6 | 6:40 PM CDT | Unrated | Custer, NE | 0.1 | 1 | |||
| May 6 | 6:41 PM CDT | EF1 | Blaine, OK | 11.1 | 300 | $40,000 | ||
| May 6 | 7:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Gage, NE | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| May 6 | 7:16 PM CDT | EF0 | Gage, NE | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| May 6 | 7:27 PM CDT | EF0 | Garfield, OK | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 6 | 7:34 PM CDT | EF0 | Garfield, OK | 0.2 | 30 | $5,000 | ||
| May 6 | 7:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Riley, KS | 1.2 | 75 | |||
| May 6 | 7:44 PM CDT | EF1 | Garfield, OK | 6.3 | 300 | |||
| May 6 | 8:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Kay, OK | 0.7 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| May 6 | 8:48 PM CDT | EF1 | Mills, IA | 5.7 | 250 | |||
| May 6 | 8:54 PM CDT | EF1 | Kay, OK | 8.0 | 75 | $100,000 | ||
| May 6 | 8:55 PM CDT | Unrated | Chautauqua, KS | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| May 6 | 9:07 PM CDT | EF1 | Pottawattamie, IA | 1.5 | 200 | |||
| May 6 | 9:12 PM CDT | EF4 | Barnsdall–Bartlesville tornado, OK | 40.8 | 1,700 | 2 | 33 | $25 million |
| May 6 | 9:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Pottawattamie, IA | 4.0 | 450 | |||
| May 6 | 9:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Coffey, KS | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| May 6 | 9:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Coffey, KS | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| May 6 | 10:56 PM CDT | EF0 | Lincoln, OK | 2.2 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| May 6 | 10:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Platte, MO | 6.0 | 50 | |||
| May 6 | 11:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Ottawa, OK to KS | 24.1 | 1,100 | $350,000 | ||
| May 6 | 11:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Cherokee, KS | 2.7 | 50 | $64,000 | ||
| May 6 | 11:26 PM CDT | EF1 | Jackson, MO | 5.8 | 50 | |||
| May 6 | 11:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Jasper, MO | 4.5 | 100 | $160,000 | ||
| May 6 | 11:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Jasper, MO | 2.0 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| May 6 | 11:39 PM CDT | EF1 | Oklahoma, OK | 2.2 | 75 | $300,000 | ||
| May 6 | 11:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Jackson, MO | 4.4 | 50 | |||
| May 6 | 11:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Oklahoma, OK | 1.1 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| May 6 | 12:06 AM CDT | EF1 | Okmulgee, OK | 4.0 | 350 | |||
| May 6 | 12:12 AM CDT | EF0 | Dade, MO | 0.4 | 200 | $10,000 | ||
| May 6 | 12:21 AM CDT | EF0 | St. Clair, MO | 1.0 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| May 6 | 12:33 AM CDT | EF0 | Greene, MO | 18.7 | 150 | 1 | $73,000 | |
| May 6 | 12:38 AM CDT | EF1 | Clarke, IA | 6.2 | 80 | $250,000 | ||
| May 6 | 12:51 AM CDT | EF1 | Pettis, MO | 9.7 | 75 | |||
| May 6 | 12:53 AM CDT | EF0 | Clarke, IA | 2.0 | 80 | $100,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.