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EF2 tornado in Graves County, Kentucky

Tornado March 1, 2017 · Graves County, Kentucky

EF2

Rating

1.6 mi

Path length

200 yd

Path width

$170K

Damage as recorded

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

This tornado began near the community of Cuba and lifted after tracking about 1.5 miles. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph. A single-family residence was destroyed. Much of the roof and upper portions of the house were removed. The roof was blown off a church. Several headstones in a cemetery were blown up to 30 feet. A number of barns were blown down. A machine shed was blown from its foundation. At least a dozen trees were uprooted. Dozens of others sustained broken limbs or trunks.

The wider storm

A squall line of severe thunderstorms produced widespread damaging winds from 70 to 80 mph across southwest Kentucky, mainly along and south of a Paducah to Princeton to Madisonville line. An isolated tornado was embedded within the damaging wind area. The squall line intensified ahead of an upper-level trough advancing east of the Plains states. The squall line was focused along and ahead of a cold front, where winds at 850 mb were southwesterly between 50 and 60 knots. Ahead of the squall line, the air mass was moist and rather unstable.

Began near Cuba (36.5827, -88.6263).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 680459. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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