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F3 tornado in Crittenden County, Kentucky

Tornado November 6, 2005 · Crittenden County, Kentucky

Rating

11.2 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

Injuries

$375K

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 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 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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Mattoon (37.4167, -88.0500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5479358. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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