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EF2 tornado in Christian County, Kentucky

Tornado February 5, 2008 · Christian County, Kentucky

EF2
Rating
14.1 mi
Path length
275 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
$4.4M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 275 yards (0.16 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

Twenty-seven homes were damaged and 17 were destroyed. A total of 19 garages, sheds, and barns were damaged or destroyed. Of the destroyed homes, at least five were mobile homes. The two injured persons transported themselves to local hospitals. The county was declared a federal major disaster area. Peak winds were estimated near 130 mph. The average path width was 225 yards.

The wider storm

A deepening low pressure system moved northeast from Arkansas along a warm front that extended across southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. Surface dew points were in the upper 50's to lower 60's along and southeast of the warm front. A strong upper level trough over the western Plains produced a strong southwest flow of 60 to 80 knots at 500 mb. Winds at 850 mb were south to southwest around 40 knots.

Began near Sinking Fork (36.9614, -87.6479).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Muhlenberg County 3 deadEF1 Calloway CountyEF1 Trigg CountyEF1 Trigg County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 76643. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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