Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 1995

F1 tornado, Pulaski County, Kentucky, May 10, 1995

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Pulaski County on May 10, 1995, touching down at 5:00 PM EDT and reaching 400 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 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 10, 1995
Touchdown
5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Pulaski County
Touchdown point
37.180, -84.680
Record number
325

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:44 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLMK

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 06:01 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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 207 km from the path. May 10, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1995-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 43 joules per kilogram, CIN -179, lifted condensation level 1494 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1995-05-10The 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 197 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
43 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-179 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1494 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
228 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 207 km from the path. May 11, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1995-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 509 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 1979 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1995-05-11The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
509 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
537 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1979 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.9
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 10, 1995

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 101:40 AM CDTF0Mobile, AL0.150
May 102:07 PM CDTF0Kankakee, IL0.510
May 105:00 PM CDTF0Marion, TN1.0201$50,000 to $500,000
May 106:05 PM EDTF0Bell, KY0.110
May 109:50 PM CDTF2Val Verde, TX0.520022$50,000 to $500,000
May 1010:20 PM CDTF1Val Verde, TX0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 1011:25 PM EDTF1McMinn, TN3.0200

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.