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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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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</html>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 TALLThe surface observations
Bowling Green (BWG), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (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.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 28 | 1:07 AM CDT | F2 | Saline, IL | 7.5 | 200 | 3 | $3.5 million | |
| April 28 | 1:18 AM CDT | F3 | Union, IL | 19.3 | 400 | 1 | 10 | $8.0 million |
| April 28 | 1:46 AM CDT | F2 | Johnson, IL | 7.0 | 400 | 2 | $100,000 | |
| April 28 | 1:59 AM CDT | F3 | Pope, IL | 22.0 | 200 | 1 | $440,000 | |
| April 28 | 2:29 AM CDT | F0 | New Madrid, MO | 0.1 | 70 | |||
| April 28 | 2:35 AM CDT | F1 | Crittenden, KY | 2.0 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| April 28 | 2:39 AM CDT | F1 | Crittenden, KY | 1.0 | 200 | $3,000 | ||
| April 28 | 2:40 AM CDT | F1 | Lake, TN | 3.5 | 75 | $750,000 | ||
| April 28 | 2:49 AM CDT | F3 | Crittenden, KY | 22.0 | 880 | 26 | $17 million | |
| April 28 | 3:05 AM CDT | F2 | Breckinridge, IN to KY | 32.3 | 150 | 1 | 19 | $1.6 million |
| April 28 | 3:40 AM CDT | F1 | Ohio, KY | 9.5 | 100 | $500,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:55 AM EDT | F1 | Hardin, KY | 2.0 | 60 | $150,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:00 AM CDT | F0 | Henry, TN | 5.0 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| April 28 | 7:34 AM CDT | F3 | Rutherford, TN | 3.2 | 350 | 31 | $2.3 million | |
| April 28 | 7:45 AM CDT | F2 | Cannon, TN | 0.9 | 30 | |||
| April 28 | 1:58 PM EDT | F2 | Stark, OH | 7.2 | 440 | 2 | $46 million | |
| April 28 | 2:35 PM EDT | F0 | Mercer, PA | 6.0 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| April 28 | 2:45 PM EDT | F1 | Mercer, PA | 16.0 | 200 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 28 | 2:50 PM EDT | F0 | Erie, NY | 0.7 | 25 | $40,000 | ||
| April 28 | 3:01 PM EDT | F1 | Butler, PA | 7.0 | 50 | $200,000 | ||
| April 28 | 3:15 PM EDT | F1 | Marshall, WV | 1.0 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 28 | 3:45 PM EDT | F0 | Armstrong, PA | 4.0 | 150 | $170,000 | ||
| April 28 | 3:50 PM EDT | F2 | Allegany, NY | 6.5 | 300 | $500,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:00 PM EDT | F2 | Indiana, PA | 5.0 | 250 | 1 | $750,000 | |
| April 28 | 4:10 PM EDT | F1 | Indiana, PA | 2.0 | 100 | 1 | $250,000 | |
| April 28 | 4:31 PM EDT | F1 | Bedford, VA | 0.5 | 100 | $1.2 million | ||
| April 28 | 3:42 PM CDT | F0 | Maury, TN | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| April 28 | 4:43 PM EDT | F2 | Bedford, VA | 10.0 | 150 | 12 | $6.0 million | |
| April 28 | 4:55 PM EDT | F2 | Shenandoah, VA | 4.0 | 75 | 2 | $1.6 million | |
| April 28 | 5:55 PM EDT | F1 | Columbia, PA | 6.0 | 30 | $90,000 | ||
| April 28 | 6:13 PM EDT | F1 | Lebanon, PA | 1.5 | 150 | $780,000 | ||
| April 28 | 6:56 PM EDT | F4 | La Plata tornado, MD | 38.0 | 650 | 3 | 122 | $124 million |
| April 28 | 7:02 PM EDT | F2 | Charles, MD | 3.0 | 100 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 28 | 7:35 PM EDT | F1 | Greensville, VA | 6.0 | 150 | 3 | $750,000 | |
| April 28 | 7:42 PM EDT | F1 | Calvert, MD | 5.0 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| April 28 | 7:55 PM EDT | F3 | Dorchester, MD | 18.0 | 150 | $150,000 | ||
| April 28 | 8:28 PM EDT | F0 | Wicomico, MD | 4.0 | 100 | $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.