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F2 tornado in Fayette County, Kentucky

Tornado May 18, 1995 · Fayette County, Kentucky

Rating

33.9 mi

Whole path

350 yd

Path width

Injuries

$5.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Mercer County → Mercer County → Woodford County → Woodford County → Jessamine County → Fayette County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 350 yards (0.20 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

The tornado began as an F1 with wind speeds of 100mph about 0.5 miles northwest of McAfee with several homes having roof and chimney damage along with several barns sustaining heavy damage. The tornado blew several cars off of US 127 resulting in significant damage and several injuries. At the intersection of Hwy 1268 and 68, 7 horses were killed along with extensive barn damage. The tornado increased to a high end F2 with wind speeds of 145 mph when it struck the West Jessamine County High School. There was extensive structural damage done to all portions of the building, along with the total destruction of the tobacco barn and greenhouse for the agricultural program. 11 busses sustained significant damage with school children on the busses. At least 30 injuries occurred at the high school, one serious. The tornado hit a strip plaza and the Walmart on the north side of Nicholasville. There was significant roof and sign damage along the business district. The tornado weakened to an F1 of 100 mph in southwest Fayette County. The tornado moved at 55 mph over a 24 mile track.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. Written accounts from this era do exist in NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications (scanned, back to 1959).

Began near Lexington (37.9292, -84.4730).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 990000013. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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