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EF1 tornado in Christian County, Kentucky

Tornado July 4, 2009 · Christian County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
0.5 mi
Path length
110 yd
Path width
$10K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 110 yards (0.06 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

A few dozen trees were uprooted, and numerous large limbs were broken. Minor shingle damage was noted on one home. A small area of corn was flattened. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.

The wider storm

Western Kentucky was located in the destabilizing warm sector of a surface low across northern Missouri. Mixed layer CAPE values at or above 1000 j/kg aided thunderstorm intensification as large scale lift was maintained ahead of the surface low. Deep-layer wind shear on the order of 40 to 50 knots contributed to persistent rotating updrafts. A few tornadoes occurred with rotating storms that crossed a warm front draped across southern parts of western Kentucky.

Began near Herndon (36.7172, -87.5540).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Calloway CountyEF0 Trigg County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 175385. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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