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EF0 tornado in McCracken County, Kentucky

Tornado October 31, 2013 · McCracken County, Kentucky

EF0
Rating
1.4 mi
Whole path
40 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through McCracken County → McCracken County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 40 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

This tornado, which occurred about a mile southeast of Reidland, contained peak winds near 75 mph. The tornado began along Highway 131. A large tree was uprooted. A very large, semi-rotten tree was split. The top was blown out of a large pine tree and a few other smaller trees. A porch roof was removed.

The wider storm

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes occurred ahead of a cold front. Thunderstorms increased in coverage over southeast Missouri and then spread east-northeast into southern Illinois and western Kentucky during the late afternoon and evening. A surface low pressure wave over the Ozark Mountain region accelerated eastward in advance of a compact upper-level shortwave over the southern Plains. A mid-level dry slot overspread the surface warm sector, where dew points were in the low to mid 60's. Extremely strong wind shear compensated for weak instability. Strong forcing along the front and a moist low level air mass contributed to a forced line of storms, including some without lightning.

Began near Shady Grove (36.9773, -88.5156).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 477072. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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