Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2009

EF1 tornado, Tollesboro, Kentucky, June 16, 2009

This EF1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Lewis County on June 16, 2009, touching down at 9:25 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
June 16, 2009
Touchdown
9:25 PM EDT (01:25 UTC)
Lifted
9:26 PM EDT (01:26 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Lewis County
Touchdown point
38.563, -83.590
Lift-off point
38.563, -83.587
Record number
0906161925-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cluster of thunderstorms tracked over northern Kentucky near a stalled surface boundary and in a very moist air mass. One of these storms produced a weak tornado.

Several homes and mobile homes received minor structural damage. Three mobile homes were lifted off of their foundations. A barn was destroyed and another was damaged. Several trees and large branches were also downed. A truck was also damaged. ||Most of the damage was in Tollesboro off of route 10 in the Hampton Lane Road area.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:15 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILN
01:36 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningILN
01:58 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningILN

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 01:00 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

1.4 hours before the tornado, 98 km from the path. June 17, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2009-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 342 joules per kilogram, CIN -50, lifted condensation level 1020 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 2009-06-17The 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 105 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.193958Sfc1 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
342 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-50 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1583 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1020 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
105 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
3.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

10.6 hours after it, 98 km from the path. June 17, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2009-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 66 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 480 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 2009-06-17The 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 99 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
66 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2186 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
480 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
154 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:24 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
01:25 UTCTORNADO 1TollesboroLewis, KYAN NWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN TOLLESBORO KENTUCKY. SEVERAL HOMES AND MOBILE HOMES RECEIVED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE...MOSTLY MINOR. ONE BARN WAS DESTROYED. SEVERAL TREES AND LARGE BRANCHES WERE DOWN
01:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGTollesboroLewis, KYSEVERAL TREES DOWN NEAR STATE ROUTE 10 AND POSSIBLE ROOF DAMAGE TO A HOME.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 2009

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 165:40 AM CDTEF1Cedar, MO5.8150$15,000
June 1612:00 PM CDTEF0Potter, SD0.210
June 1612:28 PM CDTEF1Lyon, KY0.390$70,000
June 161:00 PM CDTEF0Sioux, ND0.120
June 161:35 PM CDTEF0Potter, SD0.525
June 162:02 PM CDTEF0Walworth, SD0.110
June 162:09 PM CDTEF0Hand, SD0.725
June 162:00 PM MDTEF0Dunn, ND0.120
June 163:55 PM CDTEF0Hand, SD3.6100
June 165:42 PM EDTEF0Cleveland, NC1.150
June 166:00 PM EDTEF1Cleveland, NC9.3300
June 165:31 PM CDTEF0Davison, SD0.350
June 166:40 PM EDTEF0Lee, VA0.120$5,000
June 166:50 PM EDTEF1York, SC1.530
June 166:36 PM CDTEF0Hutchinson, SD0.450
June 166:50 PM CDTEF0Hutchinson, SD0.350
June 167:55 PM EDTEF0Russell, VA0.220$5,000
June 167:20 PM CDTEF0Hutchinson, SD0.350
June 167:27 PM CDTEF1Hutchinson, SD2.1100
June 168:35 PM EDTEF0Washington, VA0.120$8,000
June 168:28 PM CDTEF0Yankton, SD0.350
June 169:25 PM CDTEF0Sumner, KS0.855

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.