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EF1 tornado in Hart County, Kentucky

Tornado July 20, 2018 · Hart County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
1.2 mi
Path length
60 yd
Path width
$200K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 60 yards (0.03 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

This tornado touched down in a wooded area midway between J Riggs Rd and Copelin Rd north of state highway 728, snapping trees as it moved southeast along a hay field where it destroyed two 1200 lb hay bales and rolled numerous others up to a tenth of a mile into a soybean field and uphill onto a knoll. Snapping trees on the land adjacent to the hay and soybean fields, the tornado took a slight right turn, crossing highway 728, and destroyed a large barn. Large parts of the barn debris were lofted into trees southwest of the structure, snapping their trunks. A 20 x 20 section of the barn was blown 500 feet to the south-southeast. The tornado continued southward for another two-tenths of a mile, downing trees along Campground Rd before lifting. Maximum winds with this tornado were estimated to be 90 to 95 mph.

The wider storm

Rounds of severe storms hammered southern Indiana and central Kentucky on Friday, July 20, 2018, bringing very large hail, wind damage, heavy rain, and 4 confirmed tornadoes. The largest hail report the National Weather Service received was 4 inches in diameter (softball size) in Tompkinsville, just north of the Tennessee border. The strongest measured wind gust was 70 mph at the Lexington Bluegrass Airport.

Began near Lone Star (37.3900, -85.9443).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 764272. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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