EF2 tornado, Browns Xrds to Alpha, Kentucky, April 11, 2008

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. 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

EF2

Date

April 11, 2008

Touchdown

12:44 PM CDT (17:44 UTC)

Lifted

12:47 PM CDT (17:47 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Clinton County

Touchdown point

36.753, -85.085

Lift-off point

36.770, -85.032

Record number

0804111144-01

Severe thunderstorms moved into south central Kentucky from Tennessee, including a super cell thunderstorm that produced four separate tornadoes that damaged numerous homes in Clinton County.

An EF-1 tornado touched down west of Highway 639 south of Wago, moving east-northeast for approximately .4 mile before lifting. The tornado destroyed a barn and heavily damaged a grain silo along Highway 639, and downed several large trees. Trees were felled on a farmhouse and a late model SUV just north of the silo, destroying the SUV and doing extensive damage to the home. Other minor damage was sustained east of Highway 639 to several outbuildings.

The second touchdown of a tornado in with a storm that moved across Clinton County produced EF-1 damage in a path just under 1/2 mile. Four utility poles were snapped along U.S. Highway 127, as were several large diameter trees in a narrow path on a wooded hill to the east of the highway.

As the storm continued eastward, several homes and outbuildings were heavily damaged by the third tornado touchdown produced by the supercell. In addition to the structural damage covering nearly 1 1/2 miles, scores of trees were downed as were utility lines. A witness at the end of this tornado's path reported seeing two tornadoes on the ground simultaneously, as the fourth tornado produced by this supercell touched down about 1/4 mile north of the ending point of the third twister.

The fourth touchdown in this family of tornadoes produced by a cyclic supercell did the most damage in Clinton County as it hit several residences in a rural subdivision along Pleasure Ridge Road. After moving through uninhabited hillside for a mile, uprooting and snapping trees in a nearly quarter-mile wide path, the tornado tore the roof of a ranch-style brick home and destroyed its nearby outbuildings. Continuing along parallel to Pleasure Ridge Road, the tornado destroyed a mobile home, barn, and grain silo in its path, and heavily damaged at least three other homes before exiting the county.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:23 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:58 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:31 UTC and running to 20:07 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:22 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.

Monticello (EKQ), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:44 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 2008 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

22 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.