EF1 tornado in Garrard County, Kentucky

Tornado December 11, 2021 · Garrard County, Kentucky

EF1

Rating

14.9 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Boyle County → Boyle County → Boyle County → Boyle County → Garrard County → Garrard County → Garrard County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 tornado formed about a half mile south of a previous tornado along a distinct line break seen on radar. The NWS drone found the tornado touched down just southwest of Bluegrass Diesel Performance auto body shop. The tornado did major roof damage to two barns, each about 30 by 40 feet, along with sporadic twisting and uprooting of a few trees. The tornado crossed US 27 and hit another barn just northwest of Locust Lane and lifted shortly after that, based on the NWS Louisville drone views.

This tornado was intermittent and was skipping with peak wind speeds of 90 mph, and had a width of 100 yards.

The wider storm

Strong southern winds brought warm temperatures and plenty of moisture into an environment of strong wind shear ahead of an advancing cold front. This resulted in unusually warm temperatures for a December day and the ingredients to produce a historic tornado outbreak and flash flooding. This included multiple long track tornadoes. Central Kentucky saw 18 tornadoes that injured 96 and killed 18. An additional death occurred in a flash flood.

Began near Marksbury (37.6679, -84.6279).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Mayfield Tornado (2021) 58 dead EF3 Bowling Green Tornado (2021) 17 dead EF3 Taylor County 1 dead EF3 Logan County EF2 Warren County EF2 Hart County EF1 Hardin County EF1 Spencer County EF1 Marion County EF1 Madison County EF1 Madison County EF0 Monroe County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 996918. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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