Today, April 10th, marks the 1 year anniversary of the Murfreesboro EF-4 tornado, and also marks the very beginnings of Tempest Storm Chasing. At 12:19 on April 10th, a tornado touched down 15 miles southwest of Murfreesboro. At 12:38, the tornado was spotted by local Storm Spotters with the National Weather Service and resulted in a tornado emergency. At this time, it was reported to be 5 miles west of the city. At 12:45, the tornado ripped through the town with winds between 166-200 miles an hour, destroying everything in its path. The tornado killed two people, a mother and her 9 month old infant child, and injured 42 people. Total damages from the tornado have been estimated to be 41.8 million dollars. Below is a radar loop of the tornado in Storm Relative Velocity (click to animate). If you need help understanding velocity, head over to our understanding radar page.

This tornado was the most destructive in Tennessee for all of 2009. From the National Weather Service’s damage survey:

STRENGTH…EF-4
MAXIMUM WINDS…170 MPH
PATH LENGTH…23.25 MILES
WIDTH…MAXIMUM 750 YARDS
TOUCHDOWN TIME…1219 PM
TORNADO END TIME…1255 PM
BEGIN LAT/LON…35.7597 -86.8480
END LAT/LON…35.9145 -86.2789

In case clarification was needed, 750 yards is almost half a mile, meaning the tornado was nearly half a mile wide!

More information on the damage survey can be found at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/?n=stormsurvey04102009

Here is a full animation of the storm system (click to animate).

Another side to this story is the very beginnings of Tempest Storm Chasing. I was visiting Nashville that week, picking out a house to move into in a few months. Our hotel was in downtown, and April 10th will be the day I never forget! Though I did not see a tornado, though I was not in Murfreesboro, it was the re-ignition of my passion for storm. I had always been thoroughly interested in weather, but this made it certain in my head this is what I wanted to do. I can still remember watching the news as they were looking at a traffic cam when a 1/2-mile wide tornado was plowing across the freeway.

So, thats that. It was a very tragic day, and my condolences go out to the families affected by this storm.

(I do not own the credit to any of these photos/videos. Damage photos belong to the National Weather service, and the others I do not know whom they belong to. Radar animations, however, are mine.)