F3 Tornado — Crittenden, Kentucky

2005-11-06 · near Mattoon, Crittenden, Kentucky

Event narrative

The tornado touched down one quarter mile west of Highway 654 and moved rapidly east-northeast. A mobile home on Highway 654 was overturned and destroyed, injuring a 12-year-old boy. A house roof was blown off. Where the tornado crossed Highway 365, a two-story home was completely demolished. The home exterior was mainly vinyl with some brick. Three persons in the house were injured. Two of the injured were treated and released, but a third person was critically injured and transferred to an Evansville hospital. The tornado was estimated to be at its strongest near Highway 365, with peak winds of 160 MPH. A small boat was carried about 400 yards, and several vehicles were moved. After crossing Highway 365, the path was roughly parallel to and less than a mile north of U.S. Highway 60. The tornado crossed Highway 60 and exited into Webster County about a mile northeast of Arflack Hill. Where the tornado crossed U.S. Highway 60, a truck trailer was overturned, and a house roof was damaged. Along the entire length of the path, numerous large trees were snapped or uprooted.

Wider weather episode

The Crittenden/Webster County tornado was one of a pair of strong supercell tornadoes that occurred simultaneously. This tornado, which was the more southern tornado, was shorter-lived and somewhat weaker than its northern counterpart. The northern tornado caused considerably more destruction and loss of life in the Henderson, KY and Evansville, IN areas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.4167, -88.0500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5479358. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.