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EF1 tornado in Warren County, Kentucky

Tornado March 2, 2012 · Warren County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
0.5 mi
Path length
60 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 60 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

A supercell thunderstorm that earlier caused straight line wind damage to Simpson County brought golf ball sized hail that penetrated siding on numerous houses near Alvaton. A tornado touched down just east of Alvaton along State Highway 961. It destroyed a barn and tool shed along a one half mile track just along the north side of State Highway 961.

The wider storm

A surface Low over Missouri early in the afternoon of March 2nd strengthened to below 990mb as it moved north into Michigan by the evening hours. Around dawn, a warm front moved north of the Ohio River. Scattered strong storms developed along this front across northern Kentucky, bringing several reports of dime sized hail. By mid afternoon, the combination of strong wind shear, temperatures rising to the upper 70s and over 2000 Joules/kg of CAPE led to the development of numerous supercells. Several of these storms produced tornadoes not only in north central Kentucky, but later in the evening across eastern Kentucky. Large hail was common, with several reports of baseball sized hail that damaged automobiles and roofs.

Began near Alvaton (36.8685, -86.3141).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 359380. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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