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EF0 tornado in Christian County, Kentucky

Tornado May 10, 2016 · Christian County, Kentucky

EF0
Rating
0.0 mi
Path length
20 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. 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

A trained spotter sighted a tornado on the west side of U.S. Highway 41 near Lake Blythe. The touchdown appeared to be brief. This tornado was spawned from the same supercell that produced a brief tornado in western Christian County north of Highway 68. Maximum winds were estimated near 70 mph.

The wider storm

An outbreak of supercells with large hail and isolated tornadoes affected western Kentucky during the afternoon and early evening. The initial round of thunderstorms occurred early in the afternoon over northwest Kentucky. These storms, which produced a major hailstorm and flash flood in the Owensboro area, were triggered by a weak upper-level low over northern Illinois. This initial round of thunderstorms produced an outflow of cooler air that settled south into southwest Kentucky. By mid-afternoon, isolated supercells with tornadoes fired up along the leading edge of cooler air. Strong westerly upper-level winds associated with the upper-level low over Illinois provided ample wind shear for supercells. A southwest wind flow of moist and unstable air in the lower levels of the atmosphere provided fuel for the storms. Low-level winds up to around 40 knots enhanced low-level wind shear, providing a favorable environment for tornadoes. The supercells lingered well into the evening.

Began near Pleasant Green Hill (36.9111, -87.4818).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 628412. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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