EF1 tornado, London, Kentucky, April 3, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 3, 2007

Touchdown

9:28 PM EDT (01:28 UTC)

Lifted

9:32 PM EDT (01:32 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Laurel County

Touchdown point

37.108, -84.013

Lift-off point

37.097, -83.980

Record number

0704031928-01

A cold front moved east from the Upper Midwest and the Central Plains on the afternoon of April 3rd. Very warm, moist, unstable air was in place over much of the region. A line of severe thunderstorms developed out ahead of the front, and plowed through many areas of Eastern Kentucky. This line of thunderstorms is also known as a squall line. Many reports of wind damage were received throughout Eastern Kentucky. Five tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Eastern Kentucky. Two tornadoes were confirmed in Pulaski County, and also in Harlan County, with one tornado confirmed in Laurel County. For Harlan County, these were the first tornadoes ever recorded in the County. These tornadoes were embedded in areas of significant straight line wind damage. Several reports of large hail were also received.

An EF1 tornado with a path length of 1.8 miles and a path width of 50 yards destroyed a pole barn, uprooted large hardwood trees, pushed a well tied down mobile home off its foundation and blew a roof off of a store.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS JKL issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:23 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:57 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:05 UTC and running to 03:20 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:34 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 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.

London-Corbin Airport (LOZ), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:26 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.