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EF2 tornado in Christian County, Kentucky

Tornado October 18, 2007 · Christian County, Kentucky

EF2
Rating
1.4 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$120K
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 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

A large area of trees was snapped and uprooted in the Pennyrile State Forest. Some of the trees were 50 to 60 feet tall. A clear path was seen through the forest. A mobile home was blown down a hill and smashed as the tornado crossed Highway 109. An occupant of the mobile home was briefly trapped and sustained lacerations and bruises. The road to the mobile home was blocked by numerous downed trees and trailer debris. Two other mobile homes were severely damaged. A barn were destroyed. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph.

The wider storm

The second and more significant severe weather outbreak of the day occurred as a cold front swept east across the Mississippi Valley. Scattered thunderstorms developed along and ahead of the front late in the afternoon. The storms organized into supercells and short lines during the evening. Over a dozen tornadoes occurred in western Kentucky.

Began near Macedonia (37.1168, -87.7161).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 59857. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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