2020 Nashville tornado

In the early morning hours of March 3, 2020, a large and destructive EF3-rated tornado moved through downtown Nashville, located in the state of Tennessee. The tornado killed five people along its 60-mile (97 km) track; it was on the ground for just over an hour. The tornado heavily damaged portions of Nashville, inflicting damages that would later total in excess of $1 billion (2020 USD), making it the eight-costliest tornado in United States history. The tornado was part of a larger outbreak of severe weather that produced fifteen tornadoes across the southern United States, including the Cookeville EF4 tornado that was spawned from the same supercell as the Nashville tornado.

The tornado touched down near Pegram at 12:32 a.m., slowly strengthening as it entered the Nashville metropolitan area. It reached high-end EF2 strength near the John C. Tune Airport, where helicopters were damaged and aircraft hangars were destroyed. The tornado heavily damaged the nearby Tennessee State Prison and shortly later struck the campus of the Tennessee State University. Two people were killed when the tornado barreled through the Germantown area, reaching EF3 intensity as it moved to the east. The tornado continued to produce heavy damage to homes and businesses as it neared and later hit areas near Mount Juliet, where three more people were killed by the tornado. It lifted a short time later. It was the first intense tornado to move through downtown Nashville since the 1998 Nashville F3 tornado.