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F2 tornado in Mercer County, Kentucky

Tornado May 11, 2003 · Mercer County, Kentucky

Rating

7.0 mi

Path length

300 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$15.0M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado formed northwest of Harrodsburg as an F1 tornado. It moved east northeast and strengthened to an F2 as it moved to near Bohon Road. Between Bohon Road and US 127, high F1 to low F2 damage was observed. The tornado lifted east of highway 127 with no additional damage. A 29 year old female drowned when her mobile home on Bohon Road was blown about one hundred yards toward the Salt River. Forty homes in the area were damaged, and of these, 12 were destroyed.

Began near Bohon (37.8000, -84.9000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F2 Hardin County F1 Hart County F1 Garrard County F1 Madison County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5357139. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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