March 1933 Nashville tornado outbreak
The March 1933 Nashville tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that affected the city of Nashville and the Middle Tennessee region on March 14, 1933. The entire outbreak produced five or more tornadoes, killed 44 people, and injured at least 461. One of the tornadoes was an F3 tornado family that struck downtown Nashville, killing 15 people and injuring 235. It is the seventh-deadliest tornado in Middle Tennessee on record and is one of two significant tornado events in the region in 1933, the other being the Beaty Swamp tornado of May 10, 1933. Meteorological synopsis In mid-March 1933, most of the Tennessee and Mississippi Valleys experienced a very warm late winter season due to a warm southerly flow coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, which bumped temperatures into the upper 70s and low 80s °F on March 14—well above normal temperatures in the upper 40s and low 50s °F. Two extratropical low pressure systems were moving across the central part of the continent with one storm centered over the Great Lakes and another one over Arkansas. With the southern storm, a cold front swiftly neared from the west and produced a squall line of thunderstorms along it.