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EF1 tornado in Barren County, Kentucky

Tornado January 1, 2022 · Barren County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
10.6 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

NWS Storm Survey Teams found EF-1 tornado damage across northern Barren County. The damage began along the 2100 block of Carden Road which included a 80 x 100ft Amish built barn which was destroyed. Damage from the barn was thrown 400 yards to the northeast and east. Along Carden Road, trees were snapped, topped and twisted. There was sporadic roof damage to homes including gutters, siding, and shingle damage. Winds in this area were 90 to 95 mph with a width of 75 yards.

Along Highway 90, the tornado increased to a width of 125 yards with many barns incurring structural roof damage. At the Legacy Dairy Farms, an older 40 x 60ft barn was destroyed and there was sidewall damage to a large grain silo along Goodnight-Hiseville Road. Winds in this area were 85 mph.

Along Route 740, the tornado paralleled the road and the width increased to 150 yards. In Hiseville, there was barn damage with half a dozen barns sustaining significant structural damage. A 50ft diameter well-built grain silo was twisted and knocked over, and numerous trees were twisted, snapped, or uprooted. Most of the trees were facing north, northeast, east, and a few in the southeasterly direction. At the Hiseville Cemetery, modern and older gravestones were knocked over and cedar trees were knocked over and topped.

The wider storm

During New Year's Eve into New Year's Day, active weather was observed across Kentucky as several waves of low pressure moved along a frontal boundary that was stalled across the region. This resulted in multiple rounds of widespread precipitation, and rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches with locally higher amounts observed across the area. As the boundary lifted north as a warm front New Year's Day, strong to severe storms were able to develop within the warm sector ahead of an approaching cold front, with multiple tornadoes and scattered straight-line wind damage being observed.

Began near Oil City (37.0430, -85.9910).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

7 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1004296. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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