EF2 Tornado — Christian, Kentucky

2011-04-04 · near Hopkinsville, Christian, Kentucky

Event narrative

The tornado path began along U.S. Highway 41 at a large auto parts manufacturing plant. The industrial warehouse type building was heavily damaged on the north and west sides. Large sections of roof up to 100 by 400 feet were removed. Small sections of exterior walls were peeled back or blown in. A rooftop hvac unit was blown off the building. There were seven injuries to workers inside the plant, mostly due to flying objects. One worker required overnight hospitalization. Some of the injuries included a broken jaw and broken foot. In front of the industrial building on U.S. 41, steel utility poles were bent almost to the ground. The remainder of the path was mostly through open farm country. Several barns were destroyed, and metal roofs were off two homes. Dozens of trees were uprooted. Observers at Fort Campbell reported seeing a rotating wall cloud about the time of the tornado. Peak winds were estimated near 130 mph. The average path width was 150 yards.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms gradually intensified along and ahead of a cold front from Arkansas into western Kentucky. The storms occurred in a moist and strongly sheared environment, resulting in a combination of line segments and supercells which evolved into a quasi-linear convective system. There were isolated tornadoes, along with a couple small swaths of damaging winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.7835, -87.3969)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 288319. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.