The windstorm took out 600 trees in Nashville. Here’s why.

Oak trees splintered. Sugar maples uprooted. Some trees crashed across Nashville streets, and hundreds of trees took out power lines. 

Nashville officials received reports for nearly 600 fallen trees on Friday following the windstorm. The total tally could be higher. 

This tree loss stemmed from an unprecedented weather event, and it also revealed some of the issues with the urban tree canopy, according to two local tree experts. 

An unusual storm for Nashville

Nashville had extremely low atmospheric pressure on Friday. The Nashville Weather Service recorded the city’s barometric pressure at 29.06, just off the record of 29.02. That is rare for Tennessee, especially since this storm wasn’t associated with a tropical storm. This fast drop in pressure caused the winds. 

Many groups, like the Nashville Electric Service, have been quick to point out the maximum wind gusts, which topped at 64 miles per hour in Nashville — the 12th fastest wind recorded in the city by NWS. An EF-0 tornado, for reference, ranges from 65 to 85 mph. 

But fast wind gusts aren’t that out of the norm. The unusual part was the duration and direction of some of the lesser, 40-mph winds. 

“Straight-line winds can be as damaging as low-end tornadoes,” said Sam Herron, a meteorologist with NWS Nashville. “It’s more rare to have repeated strong winds.” 

Sustained winds were the largest factor in the tree deaths. Local soils were also wet, meaning a little looser, from recent rains. 

Nashville’s tree canopy was already vulnerable

Urban trees have structural challenges. Street trees are the most exposed. 

“It is the hardest job in the world to be a street tree,” said Jo Brichetto, a naturalist in Nashville. 

Trees in natural environments are part of a community, with a fungal network and connected roots. 

Street trees, on the other hand, are surrounded by concrete and asphalt. They can have shallow roots, or sometimes one-sided roots, and utilities can over-trim them.

The problems usually start at the planting. 

“When we take a tree from a nursery and just plunk it down by a street, it is completely isolated,” Brichetto said. “It’s trying to exist in its little box … literally between a rock and a hard place.” 

A lot of different trees fell last weekend. Hackberries were expected losses, but there were maples and even some oaks among the uprooted. 

Tipped trees can be destructive and deadly. Three deaths from Friday’s storms were caused by felled trees. 

But that doesn’t mean people should chop them down — one of the best solutions to prevent tree losses is actually the opposite, according to Carol Ashworth, a landscape architect with the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps. 

“What we could do about is to plant good hardwood trees to provide a more resistant and resilient tree canopy,” Ashworth said. 

For people aching from the loss of their tree, tulip poplars grow large, and quickly. Oak trees grow slower, but they live much longer, Ashworth advised. Trees are more likely to survive if they’re the right tree for the location, and proper planting is key. 

What to do if you lost a tree

Nashville residents have options to get their trees replaced. 

After the 2020 tornado, the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps created a program, called Operation Overstory, that allows residents to order a large tree at no cost. 

Residents can also reach out to Root Nashville, a campaign from the city of Nashville and Cumberland River Compact to plant 500,000 trees by 2050.