Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 1990

F0 tornado, Hancock County, Kentucky, June 6, 1990

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hancock County on June 6, 1990, touching down at 3:15 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 6, 1990
Touchdown
3:15 PM CDT (20:15 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Hancock County
Touchdown point
37.850, -86.670
Record number
603

The warnings

46 minutes of warning. NWS IND issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:29 UTC, 46 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:29 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningIND

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:52 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 191 km from the path. June 6, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1990-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6872, lifted condensation level 1344 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1990-06-06The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 98 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6872 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1344 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 191 km from the path. June 7, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1990-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -5376, lifted condensation level 1178 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1990-06-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -215 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5376 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1178 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Owensboro/Daviess (OWB), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC200° 8 kt1014.2TS
19:20 UTC300° 20 kt471017.9TSRA
20:00 UTC6732250° 5 kt1016.6
21:00 UTC6632300° 10 kt1018.6
22:00 UTC6432160° 14 kt1015.2

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 6, 1990

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 612:52 PM CDTF0Vanderburgh, IN1.110$50 to $500
June 61:25 PM CDTF0Spencer, IN6.050$500 to $5,000
June 62:07 PM CDTF0Henderson, KY0.220$500 to $5,000
June 63:18 PM EDTF1Harrison, IN1.0232$5,000 to $50,000
June 63:37 PM EDTF0Floyd, IN0.523$500 to $5,000
June 62:53 PM CDTF0Breckinridge, KY2.050$5,000 to $50,000
June 65:30 PM MDTF0Larimer, CO1.023$500 to $5,000
June 67:10 PM MDTF3Elbert, CO7.0500$500 to $5,000
June 67:45 PM MDTF0Arapahoe, CO0.223
June 68:45 PM MDTF3Lincoln, CO7.050014$5 million to $50 million
June 68:51 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.110
June 69:47 PM MDTF0El Paso, CO0.110
June 610:05 PM MDTF0El Paso, CO0.210
June 611:30 PM MDTF2El Paso, CO2.01002$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.