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EF1 tornado in Fulton County, Kentucky

Tornado February 24, 2011 · Fulton County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
7.2 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width
$80K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Fulton County → Hickman County → Graves County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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

The initial touchdown point was about two miles northwest of Fulton at the Amtrak station on U.S. Highway 51. At initial touchdown, a few power poles were snapped and lying across power lines. A citywide power outage affected Fulton. Further northeast, two grain bins were tossed for several hundred yards, damaging nearby grain storage bins. Several sheds and garages were damaged or destroyed. A field irrigation system was toppled. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. A barn was destroyed. Several homes and barns had roof or shingle damage. Two campers were blown over. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph. The average path width was 100 yards. The tornado crossed into Hickman County as it moved along Kentucky Highway 2569.

The wider storm

A powerful mid-level shortwave trough ejected east-northeast across the southern Plains, reaching the lower and mid Mississippi Valley during the night. In the lower levels, a low intensified as it tracked from Oklahoma into southern Missouri during the day, then across the Lower Ohio Valley in the evening. To the east of the low, a warm front advanced northward to the Lower Ohio Valley. Storms moving east-northeast evolved into an extensive QLCS (quasi-linear convective system) that produced scattered wind damage and a few tornadoes. Preceding the QLCS, widespread heavy rain accompanied the warm front.

Began near Riceville (36.5256, -88.8890).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 278687. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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