Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2003

F1 tornado, Oakdale, Kentucky, February 22, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Breathitt County on February 22, 2003, touching down at 4:09 PM EST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed 2 people and injured 7, and did $300,000 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
February 22, 2003
Touchdown
4:09 PM EST (21:09 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
2
Injuries
7
Property damage
$300,000
County
Breathitt County
Touchdown point
37.550, -83.550
Lift-off point
37.550, -83.550
Record number
27

What the Weather Service recorded

A large swath of downburst winds, nearly 450 yards wide, swept through the damaged area. Embedded in these winds was an F1 tornado, with winds between 100 and 112 mile per hour. At least five trailer homes were completely destroyed along with several other structures including tobacco barns and outbuildings. Twelve cars were also destroyed in a car lot. Numerous trees were down or uprooted. Two people died as a result of injuries from their mobile homes being tossed off of the ground.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
27FMobile/Trailer HomeDirect
40MMobile/Trailer HomeDirect

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
21:05 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL
21:29 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:25 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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

9.2 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. February 22, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2003-02-22Temperature 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 -84177, lifted condensation level 510 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2003-02-22The 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 133 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-84177 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
510 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
133 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

2.8 hours after it, 210 km from the path. February 23, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2003-02-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 420 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2003-02-23The 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 309 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
420 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
309 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
322 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:08 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 2003 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 22, 2003

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 2210:05 AM ESTF0York, SC0.225
February 2210:18 AM ESTF2Columbia, GA2.0150$310,000
February 2211:31 AM ESTF0Appling, GA0.101$50,000
February 222:41 PM ESTF0City of Suffolk, VA1.050$30,000
February 225:55 PM ESTF0Onslow, NC0.120

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.