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EF1 tornado in Lyon County, Kentucky

Tornado April 25, 2011 · Lyon County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
3.2 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$150K
Damage as recorded
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 tornado uprooted trees and snapped branches. The tornado struck a marina on Lake Barkley. There was substantial damage to boat docks and to the roofing of one home. One boat capsized. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph. The path width was only 30 yards on average.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Kuttawa (37.0444, -88.1521).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Christian CountyEF1 Lyon CountyEF1 Graves CountyEF0 Calloway County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 309210. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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