Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2003

F2 tornado, Bohon, Kentucky, May 11, 2003

This F2 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Mercer County on May 11, 2003, touching down at 5:30 AM EDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 8, and did $15 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
May 11, 2003
Touchdown
5:30 AM EDT (09:30 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
8
Property damage
$15 million
County
Mercer County
Touchdown point
37.800, -84.900
Lift-off point
37.820, -84.800
Record number
912

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado formed northwest of Harrodsburg as an F1 tornado. It moved east northeast and strengthened to an F2 as it moved to near Bohon Road. Between Bohon Road and US 127, high F1 to low F2 damage was observed. The tornado lifted east of highway 127 with no additional damage. A 29 year old female drowned when her mobile home on Bohon Road was blown about one hundred yards toward the Salt River. Forty homes in the area were damaged, and of these, 12 were destroyed.

The deaths

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

AgeSexWhereKind
29FMobile/Trailer HomeDirect

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:27 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:17 UTC09:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLMK
09:27 UTC09:45 UTCTornado WarningLMK

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:56 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), 00:00Z

9.5 hours before the tornado, 202 km from the path. May 11, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2003-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1265 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 897 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2003-05-11The 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 411 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 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
1265 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2032 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
897 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
411 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
392 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.2
Supercell composite
17.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.5 hours after it, 202 km from the path. May 11, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2003-05-11Temperature 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 -35187, lifted condensation level 865 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 2003-05-11The 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 536 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
-35187 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
865 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
536 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
551 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:29 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 May 11, 2003

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 111:18 AM CDTF3McLean, KY1.8802$400,000
May 114:10 AM EDTF2Hardin, KY6.51205$1.0 million
May 113:12 AM CDTF1Davidson, TN4.5200$500,000
May 113:20 AM CDTF3Williamson, TN1.03001$2.2 million
May 113:20 AM CDTF1Wilson, TN3.6200$500,000
May 113:30 AM CDTF1Williamson, TN0.5200
May 113:40 AM CDTF1Sumner, TN5.5200
May 113:50 AM CDTF3Rutherford, TN1.0400$1.8 million
May 113:59 AM CDTF1Hart, KY2.050$100,000
May 116:55 AM EDTF1Garrard, KY1.075$100,000
May 113:30 PM EDTF1Wayne, NY2.350$150,000
May 114:10 PM EDTF0Lycoming, PA1.375$10,000
May 115:30 PM PDTF0Grant, WA0.10

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.