01-29-2013 Tornado Outbreak - MDT Risk Day

[Ashley Poling]

This event is the largest January tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee on record, and the second largest outbreak on record of any month with 23 tornadoes confirmed. This is just one tornado shy of tying the record of 24 which belongs to the Super Outbreak of 74. Granted they weren't nearly the magnitude of the '74 tornadoes, the tornadoes from this January outbreak had 3 EF2s, 6 EF1s, and the rest EF0s from a QLCS setup.

I figured I'd post this for discussion seeing as these type of events usually discussed much. I've included a link to the SPC Event page for this day. Local media didn't really seem that concerned with this system nor did seem to get any other attention.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/archive/event.php?date=20130129

Surface temps were in the low 70s at night (middle of the night even) ahead of the front with associated QLCS, which pushed through the mid state between 2a-4a. CAPE was in a meager range of 100-150 at best, and 0-1 SRH values of at least 600. The MDT was actually posted for earlier in the day to the west to include western parts of TN while we were in a slight risk. The forecasted hodographs were literally off of the charts. On some you could see maybe a little part of a line. When the front did approach, the embedded supercells were really impressive on radar.

 

[Adam Reagan]

Here is the only radar grab I got from that event. This was shortly before a tornado touched down outside of Woodbury. That was a fun morning laying around in my bathtub until the QLCS passed through Murfreesboro.