Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2002

F1 tornado, Broadway, Kentucky, April 28, 2002

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Edmonson County on April 28, 2002, touching down at 4:35 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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
April 28, 2002
Touchdown
4:35 AM CDT (09:35 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Edmonson County
Touchdown point
37.320, -86.250
Lift-off point
37.320, -86.200
Record number
595

What the Weather Service recorded

Roofs were blown off several homes. 2-by-4's from buildings were stuck into the ground. Numerous trees were downed, some were snapped well above the ground.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 27, 11:51 PM CDT, 4 hours 44 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 27, 11:51 PM CDT, 4 hours 44 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
1251 AM EDT SUN APR 28 2002

...FOCUS ON SVR WX ATTM AND WINDS SUN...

STG 500MB WAVE OVR IA IN CONJ WITH SFC THETA-E AXIS OVER MID-MS RVR
VLY ALLOWING FOR +TSRA TO DEVELOP E OF KSTL...AT INTERSECTION OF THE
NOSE OF 80KT 500MB AND 60KT 850MB JET CORES. TSRA OVER CWA ATTM
OCCURRING NEAR SFC INTERFACE OF NWD MVG WARM FRONT AND AXIS OF 3HR
PRES FALLS FROM KSDF TO KCLE AT 4Z. PER LAPS/META SOUNDINGS AND SPC
WEB-MESOANAL...TSRA E OF KSTL WILL FORM LINE OF SVR CELLS WITH WIND
DAMAGE PRIMARY THREAT AS DCAPE AXIS IS ASSOC WITH LINE AND VRY STG
SFC-4KM WIND FIELDS. 700-500MB L/RS ARENT THE BEST WITH THIS SYS
BUT SIG 700MB DRYING OCCURRING OVER MS-RVR VLY LEADING TO SVR
DOWNDRAFTS. POOL OF 1KM SR-HEL ABV 500 M2/S2 AND LCLS BLO 1KM SUG
ISO CELLS COULD SPAWN TORNADOES ESP OVER SRN PERIPHERY OF SVR
COMPLEX. LMTG FACTOR IS INSTAB/CIN WITH CAPES FROM KPAH-KSTL ONLY
AROUND 1000 J/KG BUT STG LOW-LVL WAA WILL LIKELY INCR THESE VALUES
AS NIGHT WEARS ON. ALSO CONVECT CURR OVER KY ATTM MAY LIMIT
SFC-BASED INSTAB. OVERALL 0Z META SHOWING BEST LIFT OVER IL/IN BUT
SOME EXTENDING INTO KY...AND BASED ON LTG TRENDS THINK BKN LINE OF
STG/SVR STORMS WILL MOVE INTO CWA AROUND 7Z. SUN SFC-LI FIELDS SHOW
COLD FRONT SLOWLY MVG THRU CWA FROM NW-SE WITH POOL OF -5C TO -8C
VALUES AHEAD OF SFC FRONT...SEEMS REASONABLE GIVEN UPSTREAM SCT/CLR
SKIES. META FCST RAOBS SHOW DRY-ADIAB L/RS TO 800MB OVER ERN ZONES
SUN PM WITH STG WINDS IN LOWEST 3KM. SO ANOTHER ROUND OF STG TSRA
LIKELY SUN...ENDING NW-SE AS SFC FRONT MOVES THRU. FRZ-LEVEL DROPS
TO 11KFT SO SOME HAILERS POSSIBLE ALONG WITH STG WINDS. PRE-FRONTAL
ATMOS MIXED TO 800MB AND POST FRONTAL MIXED TO 875MB...WITH 925MB
WINDS AT/ABOVE 45KTS AND SFC WINDS AT/ABOVE 25KTS MOST OF THE DAY.
WILL LIKELY ISSUE WIND ADV (NPWSDF) FOR ENTIRE CWA PRIMARILY ON
THREAT OF GUSTS OVER 45 MPH. SUBSIDENT AIRMASS MOVES IN SUN NIGHT
WITH SFC HIGH INTO MO. META 900MB RH STILL HIGH OVER CWA SO WILL GO
M/CLOUDY. MON SFC-875MB L/RS NEAR DRY-ADIABATIC SO BKN SC/CU WILL
LIKELY PERSIST WITH 900MB RHS ABV 80%. WILL JUST GO WITH BLEND OF
GUIDANCE AND META FOR POPS/TEMPS.

.SDF...WIND ADV SUN ALL ZONES (NPWSDF).

SMALLCOMB

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 28, 3:38 AM CDT, 57 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 28, 4:01 AM CDT, 34 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE, KY
501 AM EDT SUN APR 28 2002

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0450 AM    HARTFORD                  KY   WIND DAMAGE
04/28/02   OHIO                           12 LARGE TREES DOWN... ONE
                                          WHICH WAS 80 FEET TALL

The surface observations

Bowling Green (BWG), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:33 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 28, 2002

37 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 281:07 AM CDTF2Saline, IL7.52003$3.5 million
April 281:18 AM CDTF3Union, IL19.3400110$8.0 million
April 281:46 AM CDTF2Johnson, IL7.04002$100,000
April 281:59 AM CDTF3Pope, IL22.02001$440,000
April 282:29 AM CDTF0New Madrid, MO0.170
April 282:35 AM CDTF1Crittenden, KY2.0100$20,000
April 282:39 AM CDTF1Crittenden, KY1.0200$3,000
April 282:40 AM CDTF1Lake, TN3.575$750,000
April 282:49 AM CDTF3Crittenden, KY22.088026$17 million
April 283:05 AM CDTF2Breckinridge, IN to KY32.3150119$1.6 million
April 283:40 AM CDTF1Ohio, KY9.5100$500,000
April 284:55 AM EDTF1Hardin, KY2.060$150,000
April 284:00 AM CDTF0Henry, TN5.050$50,000
April 287:34 AM CDTF3Rutherford, TN3.235031$2.3 million
April 287:45 AM CDTF2Cannon, TN0.930
April 281:58 PM EDTF2Stark, OH7.24402$46 million
April 282:35 PM EDTF0Mercer, PA6.050$150,000
April 282:45 PM EDTF1Mercer, PA16.0200$1.0 million
April 282:50 PM EDTF0Erie, NY0.725$40,000
April 283:01 PM EDTF1Butler, PA7.050$200,000
April 283:15 PM EDTF1Marshall, WV1.0150$100,000
April 283:45 PM EDTF0Armstrong, PA4.0150$170,000
April 283:50 PM EDTF2Allegany, NY6.5300$500,000
April 284:00 PM EDTF2Indiana, PA5.02501$750,000
April 284:10 PM EDTF1Indiana, PA2.01001$250,000
April 284:31 PM EDTF1Bedford, VA0.5100$1.2 million
April 283:42 PM CDTF0Maury, TN0.110
April 284:43 PM EDTF2Bedford, VA10.015012$6.0 million
April 284:55 PM EDTF2Shenandoah, VA4.0752$1.6 million
April 285:55 PM EDTF1Columbia, PA6.030$90,000
April 286:13 PM EDTF1Lebanon, PA1.5150$780,000
April 286:56 PM EDTF4La Plata tornado, MD38.06503122$124 million
April 287:02 PM EDTF2Charles, MD3.0100$1.0 million
April 287:35 PM EDTF1Greensville, VA6.01503$750,000
April 287:42 PM EDTF1Calvert, MD5.050$10,000
April 287:55 PM EDTF3Dorchester, MD18.0150$150,000
April 288:28 PM EDTF0Wicomico, MD4.0100$10,000

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.