The Storm of the Week is a tornado which struck Joelton back on November 12, 1911. This is a brand new addition to our burgeoning tornado database, having just been unearthed by a friend of mine who works at our Huntsville office. According to one newspaper account, Three people were more or less seriously injured, one of them probably fatally, ten dwelling houses, a school house and nineteen barns were destroyed at one oclock this morning when Joelton, a settlement near Paradise Ridge, fifteen miles from Nashville, was visited by the most terrific cyclone in its history. Four dwellings were blown to splinters. Mrs. Orville Towns received internal injuries when the roof of their dwelling came in on her. She may die. R. A. Huffman was bruised and smashed. His child was also seriously injured. His wife was uninjured. Six other dwellings were partially destroyed. The tornado was the result of a powerful cold front which swept across Middle Tennessee that morning. The same newspaper mentions in an adjacent article that A fall in temperature of forty degrees in six hours was recorded here Sunday morning. The thermometer registered 74 at 1 oclock Sunday morning and by 7 oclock the temperature was [illegible]. From that point a rise began, a maximum of 33 being attained for the day. Ultimately, the diurnal range in temperature that day was 52 degrees, which remains a record for November 12. The official high was 73 degrees (not 74), with a low that night of 21 degrees.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 21:05:07 +0000