F4 storm ripped wide path through Southridge A FEMA photo shows the damage to Southridge.

Subdivision looked like a 'war zone' Destruction caused by a powerful tornado looked "like somebody had dropped bombs" throughout the Southridge subdivision 10 years ago. By Lisa Marchesoni, Senior Writer

Alan Miller Tornado destroyed belongings, but not his spirit Alan Miller knows what it's like to own only the clothes he wears. Miller lost all his worldly possessions in seconds when an F4 tornado with winds between 207 to 260 mph whipped through his Barfield subdivision about 5 p.m. Jan. 24, 1997 and swept away his Hogan Street home. By Lisa Marchesoni, Senior Writer

Twister taught lesson about communications Cellular telephones jammed when people spread the news about a tornado ravaging Southridge subdivision Jan. 24, 1997, making it difficult for emergency responders to communicate. By Lisa Marchesoni, Senior Writer - 1 opinion posted

Fujita Scale Wind Speeds

The tornado's timeline 4:22 p.m. — Due to persistent reports of large hail with the thunderstorms and strong rotational velocity couplets (both cell A and cell B), it was decided to go with a tornado warning for Rutherford County despite the lack of visual sightings or reports of damage. Warning specified the cities of La Vergne, Smyrna, Murfreesboro and Eagleville were in the path of these storms.

Rutherford County's Top 10 tornadoes Here's a list of some of the major tornadoes to strike Murfreesboro and Rutherford County.

Review your tornado safety procedures Here in the USA, tornadoes have occurred in every month, so any time is a good time to review tornado safety procedures--for home, for school, for work, in the car, and while out and about.

NOAA offers tornado safety tips There is no such thing as guaranteed safety inside a tornado. Freak accidents happen; and the most violent tornadoes can level and blow away almost any house and its occupants. Extremely violent F5 tornadoes are very rare, though. Most tornadoes are actually much weaker and can be survived using these safety ideas...

FEMA offers tornado facts for kids

NOAA and the Tennessee outbreak of 1974 At least 28 tornadoes lashed some 19 counties of Middle and Eastern Tennessee between the early afternoon of April 3 and 1 a.m. CDT the following morning-in the worst single outbreak of tornadoes in the state's history.

NOAA's Tennessee tornado database This is a comprehensive list of all recorded Tennessee tornadoes.

Middle Tennessee's severe weather climatology Tennessee does not lie in what is known as the "tornado alley" of the Southern Plains, but its geographical location still allows for a relatively high frequency of tornado occurrences. Since 1830, 469 individual tornadoes that have occurred in Middle Tennessee have been catalogued.

The Gum tornado Here's the National Weather Service's overview of this major tornado.

Storm warning procedures at MTSU

Images from the Walter Hill tornado

NOAA's survey of the 1/24/97 Supercell event