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EF1 tornado in Graves County, Kentucky

Tornado April 4, 2008 · Graves County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
3.6 mi
Path length
170 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 170 yards (0.10 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

Between 100 and 200 trees were uprooted or snapped. Most of the downed trees were around Fairbanks. At Fairbanks, an old grocery store and mobile home were both deroofed. Near Bell City, about 30 percent of the roof on a large farm equipment building was blown off. Some siding was removed from another. The damage path was broken. The peak wind was estimated at 90 mph.

The wider storm

A warm front moved slowly north across western Kentucky during the afternoon. Large clusters of thunderstorms produced very heavy rain. A cold front moved southeast into the Lower Ohio Valley during the night, preceded by more thunderstorms. These storms produced a report of wind damage and a tornado. Rainfall for the 24-hour period ranged from 2 to 4 inches across most of western Kentucky, with isolated amounts of 4 to 7 inches. The isolated higher amounts were mostly from Madisonville to Marion.

Began near Fairbanks (36.5200, -88.5590).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 87234. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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