EF0 tornado in Hopkins County, Kentucky
Tornado February 29, 2012 · Hopkins County, Kentucky
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
A trained spotter reported a tornado on the ground near exit 44 along the Pennyrile Parkway.
The wider storm
A squall line with embedded sustained supercells entered western Kentucky early in the morning. The embedded supercells raced east-northeast at 60 to 70 mph, while the line moved southeast at a slower rate. The storms strengthened as they encountered richer low-level moisture, with surface dew points around 60 degrees spreading rapidly north-northeastward up the Mississippi Valley. Intense low to mid-level wind fields maintained the intensity of tornadic storms despite weak instability due to lack of solar heating. A south-southwesterly low level jet from 60 to 70 knots veered to west-southwest around 75 knots at 500 mb. By mid-morning, the solid squall line evolved into a broken line of discrete storms over the Pennyrile region and Kentucky Lake region. While these discrete storms maintained severe levels, their tornado production decreased.
Began near Madisonville (37.3434, -87.4930).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 359737. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
Tornadoes near your address
See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.
We couldn’t get your location. Check that location access is allowed for this site, or type an address.