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EF3 tornado in Henry County, Kentucky

Tornado February 28, 2011 · Henry County, Kentucky

EF3
Rating
2.3 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$500K
Damage as recorded
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 EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-3 tornado with wind speeds of up to 140 mph in Henry county. The tornado touched down just to the southwest of KY 1899 (Mulberry Pike), crossing into Springhill Estates subdivision. Two homes were destroyed here along with three outbuildings. Trees were uprooted and snapped. The tornado then weakened as it traveled across KY 1359. Fifteen power poles were blown down along the highway. One barn was destroyed and another had the roof blown off. The tornado continued across KY 22 where trees were blown down and one outbuilding was damaged. The tornado lifted near Drennon Creek.

The wider storm

A cold front moved through southern Indiana and central Kentucky on the morning of February 28. A strong low low level jet developed ahead of this front with winds of 60-80 knots at 2-3 thousand feet, resulting in very high speed shear and storm relative helicity values. A squall line with bowing segments developed to the west of the Louisville forecast area and crossed the region during the early to mid morning hours. This line produced multiple tornadoes across the region as well as straight line wind damage.

Began near Bellview (38.3510, -85.1598).

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 286984. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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