Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2002

F2 tornado, Calhoun, Kentucky, January 23, 2002

This F2 tornado ran 1.8 miles across McLean County on January 23, 2002, touching down at 10:27 PM CST and reaching 500 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.0 million 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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
January 23, 2002
Touchdown
10:27 PM CST (04:27 UTC)
Path length
1.8 miles (2.9 km)
Path width
500 yards (457 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1.0 million
County
McLean County
Touchdown point
37.530, -87.270
Lift-off point
37.530, -87.270
Record number
2

What the Weather Service recorded

Top wind speeds in this F-2 tornado were estimated near 120 MPH. The damage path extended from the extreme northwest side of Calhoun to the extreme northeast side of town. A total of about 53 buildings were damaged or destroyed, of which 43 were homes and 10 were businesses. At least one home and one business was destroyed, 5 houses received major damage, and 4 businesses including a church and daycare center received major damage. The business that was destroyed was a TV antenna/satellite service on Kentucky Highway 81 at the northern city limit of Calhoun. Most of the remainder of the structures received minor damage. In addition to the damaged homes and businesses, barns, grain bins, and at least one shed were destroyed. At the city-owned cemetery, 300 to 350 tombstones were overturned, and 50 trees were uprooted.

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

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
04:08 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPAH

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 01:18 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), 00:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 167 km from the path. January 24, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2002-01-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 682 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 596 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 00:00Z on 2002-01-24The 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 189 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 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
682 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
353 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
596 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
3.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

7.5 hours after it, 167 km from the path. January 24, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2002-01-24Temperature 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 -65734, lifted condensation level 736 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 2002-01-24The 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 31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 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
-65734 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
736 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-59 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Owensboro/Daviess (OWB), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
02:45 UTC62.6 5 kt1009.5
03:00 UTC62.6 5 kt1009.5-TSRA
03:45 UTC62.6 4 kt1008.8TSRA BR

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

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

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.