F1 tornado, Somerset to London, Kentucky, July 4, 2001

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.

Rating

F1

Date

July 4, 2001

Touchdown

2:11 PM EDT (18:11 UTC)

Path length

24.0 miles (38.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$350,000

Counties

Pulaski and Laurel counties

Touchdown point

37.150, -84.650

Lift-off point

36.980, -84.270

Record number

312

On the afternoon of July 4th, severe thunderstorms developed over portions of south central and southeastern Kentucky. One of the storms spawned a multi-segmented tornado which first touched down northwest of downtown Somerset. The damage began along Old Salts Road where a mobile home was destroyed. Three barns were severely damaged and one barn was destroyed. Many trees were snapped off at the base. The tornado lifted and touched down again in the Norwood Subdivision. Roof damage to framed homes and snapped trees resulted. The tornado skipped along its east southeast path and produced damage again at Highway 27 where two businesses were damaged. Several homes in the Camelot Subdivision received roof damage. The tornado also hit northern Pulaski Middle school where a portion of the school roof blew off then water pipes broke and produced flooding in the building. The last mention of damage occurred near Mount Victory where tree damage was experienced and an outbuilding was blown 18 inches off of its foundation. This tornado skipped continued to skip along a path east southeast into Laurel County.

This tornado was the continuation of the F1 tornado that traveled through Pulaski County. The tornado touched down in the Craigs Creek Group Campground area and was witnessed by a local law enforcement official. Eye witnesses reported that large trees started to bend and snap off toward the northeast initially, and then one to two minutes later, bend and snap off to the southwest. Tents and large trees were sent into the air as dangerous missiles, while a light weight card table only ten feet away was left untouched. One adult male stated that he held onto a pole as he was briefly lifted off of the ground by the tornado.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

17 minutes of warning. NWS JKL issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:54 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:59 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 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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