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EF1 tornado in Jefferson County, Kentucky

Tornado January 29, 2008 · Jefferson County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
16.4 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$3.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 fast moving EF-1 tornado briefly touched down four times in the Louisville Metro area as a squall line crossed the city. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 1.5 miles over the course of it's 16 mile long track. The first touchdown was in and industrial area just off Millers Lane west of the Dixie Highway. The tornado stayed on the ground for one mile before lifting, heavily damaging a church on Dixie Highway, as well as uprooting and snapping several trees and damaging numerous homes. The tornado then dipped to earth again on the west side of the University of Louisville campus, breaking out many windows in a large residence hall and nearby building, and damaging several vehicles parked nearby. The next touchdown happened in Saint Matthews near the intersection of Shelbyville Road and Interstate 264, where extensive damage was suffered by many businesses and private properties. The fourth and final touchdown was in Anchorage where many trees were damaged, blown over, and uprooted, roofs were damaged, and a large outbuilding at a training school was destroyed. Widespread downburst wind damage occurred mainly to the south of the tornado's path as the squall line moved across the city.

The wider storm

A powerful cold front set off a lengthy squall line that crossed all of central Kentucky on the evening of January 29. A large number of locations had 60 to as much as 100 mph winds, causing extensive property damage. There were also a few small tornado spin-ups.

Began near Louisville (38.2183, -85.7945).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 71946. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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