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EF3 tornado in Lawrence County, Kentucky

Tornado March 2, 2012 · Lawrence County, Kentucky

EF3

Rating

85.0 mi

Whole path

1,200 yd

Path width

Deaths

118

Injuries

$81.5M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Menifee County → Morgan County → Lawrence County → Johnson County → Lawrence County → Wayne County, West Virginia → Lincoln County, West Virginia; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,200 yards (0.68 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 long track tornado clipped extreme southwestern Lawrence County, for a few miles around Terryville, before crossing briefly into Johnson County.

Maximum wind gusts were estimated around 140 mph from damage to mobile homes. Two residents were injured in this segment of the tornado.

The wider storm

A deepening low pressure system was lifting northeast out of central Illinois around midday on Friday, the 2nd. It reached southern Michigan by evening. By late afternoon its associated warm front had pulled north into central Ohio and into central West Virginia near Charleston. This left eastern Kentucky in the warm sector. Surface dew points increased into the upper 50s in eastern Kentucky and into the lower 60s across southern Kentucky during the late afternoon, ahead of the approaching cold front.

Severe thunderstorms, including distinct supercells, moved into eastern Kentucky just before sunset. One of those supercells produced an unusually long lived tornado that moved across Lawrence County. This was the same storm that had hit West Liberty earlier. This tornado briefly crossed into Johnson County before reentering Lawrence County. The tornado killed 2 people along Spencer Branch near Norris and the Left Fork of Little Blaine Creek. After hitting the Chapman and Gallup vicinity, the tornado crossed the Tug Fork River into Wayne County, West Virginia near Glenhayes.

Another tornado with a long track, stayed south of Lawrence County, affecting Johnson and Martin Counties before ending just across the West Virginia border in Mingo County. This was the same tornado that had hit the Salyersville vicinity earlier.

Large hail also was a major contributor to the damage totals in Lawrence County. One used car lot near Louisa had several vehicles damaged.

This event was just 2 days after another warm front, followed by a cold front, had triggered severe weather in northeast Kentucky.

This was the first recorded tornado within Lawrence County. President Barack Obama included Lawrence County in the federal disaster in Kentucky. Over 20 other Kentucky counties were also affected. See FEMA disaster number 4057 for more details.

Began near Terryville (37.9740, -83.0155).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 366013. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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