Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2004

F0 tornado, Ravenna, Kentucky, June 1, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Estill County on June 1, 2004, touching down at 5:30 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
June 1, 2004
Touchdown
5:30 PM EDT (21:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Estill County
Touchdown point
37.680, -83.920
Lift-off point
37.680, -83.920
Record number
247

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado made a brief touchdown in a field just south of Highway 1571.

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
20:40 UTC21:45 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. The outlook in force was issued at 20:31 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

9.5 hours before the tornado, 195 km from the path. June 1, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2004-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -126, lifted condensation level 1584 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 12:00Z on 2004-06-01The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-126 J/kg
Surface CAPE
117 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1584 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.5 hours after it, 195 km from the path. June 2, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2004-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 222 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 1893 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 2004-06-02The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
222 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
607 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1893 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:29 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:30 UTCHAIL 0.88JudyMontgomery, KY
20:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGWinchesterClark, KYTWO TREES AND TWO POWER LINES DOWN.
20:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGPolksvilleBath, KYTREES DOWN ALONG US 60 NEAR FEARING ROAD
20:55 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 E StantonPowell, KY
20:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 60StantonPowell, KYESTIMATED WINDS TO 60 MPH.
21:01 UTCTSTM WND DMGSladePowell, KYTREES DOWN IN SLADE AND ACROSS THE COUNTY.
21:05 UTCTORNADOFrenchburgMenifee, KYPOSSIBLE TORNADO REPORTED BY TOWER WORKERS AT TRANSMITTER SITE NEAR FRENCHBURG.
21:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 S VortexWolfe, KY1 TREE DOWN
21:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 Se CamptonWolfe, KYTREE DOWN
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 S BeattyvilleLee, KYSEVERAL TREES DOWN ON LONG BRANCH ROAD
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S Cannel CityMorgan, KY1 TREE DOWN
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGMaryWolfe, KYLARGE PINE TREE DOWN ON LITTLE BLOODY CREEK ROAD
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGVancleveBreathitt, KY1 TREE DOWN
21:30 UTCTORNADO2 E RavennaEstill, KYPOSSIBLE TORNADO. BARN ROOF RIPPED OFF. TREES DOWN. HOUSE WINDOWS BROKEN.
21:38 UTCTSTM WND DMGUnionLee, KYSEVERAL TREES DOWN OFF ABNER FLAT ROAD NEAR PRIMROSE
21:39 UTCTSTM WND DMGJacksonBreathitt, KY1 TREE DOWN ON PICNIC HILL
21:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S Cannel CityMorgan, KYCORRECTED. TIME SHOULD BE 545 PM EDT NOT 525 PM EDT.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 1, 2004

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 16:05 PM EDTF0Franklin, NY0.110$10,000
June 18:26 PM CDTF0Hopkins, KY0.950
June 19:07 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.150
June 19:12 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.150

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.