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EF2 tornado in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

Tornado January 30, 2013 · Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

EF2
Rating
5.1 mi
Path length
325 yd
Path width
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 325 yards (0.18 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph. The average path width was 275 yards. Large portions of the roof structure were removed from one home, including rafters. Several other homes lost varying numbers of shingles. Siding was damaged on several homes, along with a few destroyed porches. Two mobile homes were completely destroyed, including one mobile home that was overturned. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. Power outages were reported.

The wider storm

A line of thunderstorms intensified as it moved east from Missouri. The storms increased as they moved into slightly more unstable air associated with a strengthening low level jet. The storms were aided by the approach of a strong upper level trough. Despite weak instability, winds of 90 knots in the lowest 3 kilometers coupled with extreme shear values resulted in damaging winds and isolated tornadoes with the strongest storms. Ahead of the thunderstorms, strong southerly gradient winds gusted up to 45 mph, mainly along and southeast of a line from Owensboro to Murray.

Began near Rosewood (37.0595, -87.0544).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 424832. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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