5 crazy facts about the Tennessee tornadoes

Tornadoes have a knack for doing bizarre things, and the twisters last week were no exception.

Tornadoes have a knack for doing bizarre things, and the deadly twisters that hit Tennessee last week were no exception. Here are a few oddities:

One tornado stayed on the ground for over 60 miles, which could be a record.

The EF-3 Davidson/Wilson/Smith County Tornado was on the ground for more than 60 miles.

What NWS calls "The EF-3 Davidson/Wilson/Smith County Tornado," which was the one that clipped northern Nashville, was on the ground for 60.13 miles. Usually, tornadoes are short-lived (the average length is 3.5 miles - the U.S. record is 219!) and have breaks in their damage paths. There's no easy way to determine whether last week's EF3 was a record, but the National Weather Service is Nashville says it was "one of the longest known tornado paths ever in the state of Tennessee."

The deadly EF4 tornado rapidly lifted just west of a town.

The NWS says that the strongest tornado that night, which was east of Nashville, and EF4 that was on the ground for over 18 miles, "rapidly came to an end near N Franklin Avenue just west of Cookeville Regional Medical Center."