Home / Kentucky / Mercer

F2 tornado in Mercer County, Kentucky

Tornado May 18, 1995 · Mercer County, Kentucky

Rating

33.9 mi

Whole path

125 yd

Path width

Injuries

$5.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Mercer County → Mercer County → Woodford County → Woodford County → Jessamine County → Fayette County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 125 yards (0.07 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

The F2 tornado began in Mayo in Central Mercer County and produced consistent high F1 to low F2 tornado damage across Mercer and Southern Woodford Counties. The most significant damage was in Salvisa along US 127 with extensive barn and outbuilding destruction along with roof damage to homes and cars being blown off the highway. The tornado lifted in Nonesuch in Southern Woodford County. The tornado moved at 45 mph along a 10 mile track.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. Written accounts from this era do exist in NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications (scanned, back to 1959).

Began near Salvisa (37.8825, -84.9364).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10328225. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.