Event narrative (NOAA)
Gusty gradient winds caused a fatality as a man was trying to hold a mattress in the back of a truck. The man was in the bed of a city truck trying to hold down a mattress. The mattress was lifted by a wind gust and flipped the man upside down up into the air. He came down and hit his head on the blacktop. The maximum wind gust recorded at Nashville International Airport was 47 mph at 1018 CST. The incident occurred in Mt. Pleasant near the Kitty Hawk Manufacturing on State Route 243. It is against state law to ride in the bed of a truck.
Other notable strong wind events in Tennessee
Source: NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database. Deaths and injuries are those NOAA classifies as direct. Damage is the reporting office's estimate at the time and is not inflation-adjusted. This is a catalogue record, not a forecast.