EF3 Tornado — Trimble, Kentucky

2012-03-02 · near Leeport, Trimble, Kentucky

Event narrative

The tornado first touched down about 5 miles south of Milton just southwest of the intersection of Routes 421 and 1226. After damaging several trees just west of Route 421, this narrow funnel rapidly increased in intensity as it crossed Route 421 and struck Milton Firestation number 2. The station was heavily damaged with the collapse of rigid frames. A two ton concession trailer was moved 30 yards, while a pickup truck was moved 60 yards. Damage to the fire station and a pumper exceeded 300 thousand dollars. Damage to the station indicated 140 mph winds and a tornado with EF-3 intensity. After extensively damaging many trees along Route 1226, the tornado weakened to an EF-1 at 871 Palmyra Road.

At this point witnesses described one vortex lifting while another descended from its parent wall cloud. Rapidly strengthening to an EF-3, it destroyed several homes on Culls Road. One of these homes had collapsed exterior walls. The tornado knocked over a large truss tower connected with an major electrical transmission line. The tornado weakened and damaged several trees with estimated 80 to 90 mph winds as it moved east into Carroll County.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.6563, -85.3236)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 359388. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.