EF2 tornado, Bethel to Poplar Hill, Tennessee, May 8, 2024

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

May 8, 2024

Touchdown

7:50 PM CDT (00:50 UTC)

Lifted

8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.9 miles (9.5 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$4.0 million

County

Giles County

Touchdown point

35.023, -87.040

Lift-off point

35.018, -86.937

Record number

2405081850-01

106 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN and NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Major damage to shop building. Impressive tree damage
• Major tree damage along this road
• Small shed lifted and moved
• Tree fell on home causing the damage

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

A widespread severe weather event impacted Middle Tennessee beginning in the early morning hours of May 8, 2024, and continued through the early morning hours of May 9th. During this time frame, numerous rounds of severe weather moved through the area, causing widespread wind damage in nearly every county in Middle Tennessee, hail up to 3 inches in diameter, and four tornadoes. One of these tornadoes in Columbia prompted a Tornado Emergency to be issued. In addition, major flash flooding also occurred with the worst flooding reported across Robertson and Sumner counties. With nearly nine inches of rain, Flash Flood Emergencies were issued for these counties. This is the first time National Weather Service Nashville issued both a Tornado Emergency and a Flash Flood Emergency in the same event. Unfortunately, this event claimed the lives of five individuals.

This EF-2 tornado touched down along Case Road southwest of Prospect where some trees were damaged. As the tornado continued east, a home sustained roof damage, and a tied-down manufactured home was completely removed from its base and destroyed. One person was critically injured in the manufactured home. As the tornado continued east, major tree damage occurred along Bethel Prospect Road, a metal shop building was destroyed, and another tied-down mobile was completely lifted off its base and wrapped around a tree with the remaining debris blown down a hillside. More trees continued to be blown down with roof damage to some homes and outbuildings as the tornado passed across the south edge of the town of Prospect and crossed Veto Road. The tornado continued to snap and uproot hundreds of trees as it moved up and down hills along El Reed Road before crossing the Elk River and dissipating. Damages are a rough estimate.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS OHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:50 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:23 UTC and running to 01:13 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:32 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.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:48 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 2024 tornado in TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

52 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.