Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2005

F2 tornado, Munfordville, Kentucky, November 6, 2005

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Hart County on November 6, 2005, touching down at 4:41 AM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2.1 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
November 6, 2005
Touchdown
4:41 AM CST (10:41 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2.1 million
County
Hart County
Touchdown point
37.280, -85.920
Lift-off point
37.280, -85.900
Record number
529

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front set off a line of severe thunderstorms during the predawn hours of November 6. One of the thunderstorms spawned an F2 tornado that struck downtown Munfordville in Hart County. The tornado caused major damage to 44 homes and two businesses. Twenty-five homes were declared uninhabitable. Six businesses and 34 homes had minor damage. Munfordville Elementary School had part of the roof removed by the tornado. About 50 vehicles in a car dealership lot were totaled.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:40 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:23 UTC11:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLMK
10:40 UTC11:00 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 06:05 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

10.7 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. November 6, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2005-11-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -94, lifted condensation level 1315 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 2005-11-06The 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 153 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-94 J/kg
Surface CAPE
90 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1315 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
153 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
250 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:41 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
10:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGBrownsvilleEdmonson, KYA TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN ON WILLY WEBB ROAD.
10:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 N Bowling GreenWarren, KYFEW TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 31W.
10:41 UTCTORNADO 2MunfordvilleHart, KYUPDATE TO TOUCHDOWN TIME BASED ON ANALYSIS OF ARCHIVED RADAR DATA. NWS DAMAGE SURVEY TEAM FOUND THAT A STRONG F2 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN MUNFORDVILLE. APPROX. 1 MILE LONG PATH THROUGH THE CENTER OF MUNFORDVILLE. APPROX.
10:45 UTCTORNADOMunfordvilleHart, KYPOSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE HAS US 31W BLOCKED INTO MUNFORDVILLE.
10:45 UTCTORNADOMunfordvilleHart, KYPOSSIBLE TORNADO WITH STRUCTUAL DAMAGE REPORTED BY LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.
10:45 UTCTORNADOMunfordvilleHart, KYNWS DAMAGE SURVEY TEAM FOUND THAT A STRONG F2 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN MUNFORDVILLE. APPROX. 1 MILE LONG PATH THROUGH THE CENTER OF MUNFORDVILLE. APPROX. 200 YARDS WIDE. NO INJURIES OR FATALITIES. SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO RO

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 6, 2005

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 61:39 AM CSTF3Henderson, KY to IN41.350024238$87 million
November 61:46 AM CSTF3Crittenden, KY11.21505$380,000
November 67:20 AM ESTF0Brown, OH0.125$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.