EF3 Tornado — Christian, Kentucky

2011-04-26 · near (hop)ft Campbell Aaf, Christian, Kentucky

Event narrative

The tornado struck the Fort Campbell airfield directly, causing extensive damage. One building structure destroyed was rated for 104 mph winds. Several very large and heavy constructed buildings suffered major damage at the Fort Campbell Army Airfield. Large doors to these buildings, which were rated for 115 to 144 mph winds, were blown in. Several other smaller buildings received minor to major damage. Numerous heavy vehicles were damaged, with at least three flipped over. Immediately north of the airfield, across farmland, several dozen trees were snapped or uprooted, two barns were heavily damaged, three power poles were blown down, and some shingles were blown off a house. A security guard witnessed the tornado during two separate illuminations provided by lightning. The security guard's vehicle was moved backward approximately ten feet during the tornado. A second security guard witnessed the tornado. Two security cameras recorded the tornado passage. One camera showed winds blowing in opposite directions over an approximate 30-second interval. Peak winds were estimated near 140 mph. The average path width was 250 yards.

Wider weather episode

A pronounced mid-level shortwave trough and associated 70 to 80 knot mid-level jet progressed northeastward from the southern Plains across Arkansas and Missouri. An associated surface low developed northeastward from southwest Missouri toward northwest Illinois. A gradual increase in the warm sector southerly low level jet occurred as the surface low deepened. Increasing vertical wind shear in the moist and unstable warm sector resulted in organized severe storms. The storms were organized into bowing lines with embedded supercell structures.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6625, -87.5071)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 290471. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.