EF3 tornado, Boxville to Henderson Arpt, Kentucky, March 28, 2009

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

March 28, 2009

Touchdown

4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)

Lifted

4:55 PM CDT (21:55 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

12.3 miles (19.9 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$540,000

Counties

Union and Henderson counties

Touchdown point

37.641, -87.796

Lift-off point

37.792, -87.674

Record number

0903281540-01

A strong low pressure center moved northeast from Oklahoma into south central Missouri by late afternoon, with a warm front extending east from the low across western Kentucky. The warm front served as a focusing mechanism for some of the ingredients needed for tornadogenesis.

The second tornado spawned by this supercell was stronger and longer lived. This second tornado formed along Highway 141 and moved northeast along the highway. Damage was spotty at the beginning of the damage path, where a small grain bin imploded. Further along the damage path, a 30-by-50 foot machinery shed was destroyed. The estimated maximum winds were near 140 mph as the tornado approached the Henderson County line. The tornado continued into Henderson County.

This tornado crossed into Henderson County from Union County. The tornado was near its maximum intensity of 140 mph near the county line. A Ford Ranger pickup truck was hurled about one quarter mile. Several other vehicles were overturned. Six homes were destroyed, ten received major damage, and sixty homes and buildings received minor damage. Much of the damage occurred in and near Corydon, especially along U.S. Highway 60. The hardest-hit buildings lost most walls and the roof. At least one grain bin was flattened. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. The average path width was about 300 yards. The tornado was photographed by an emergency management official. Due to the rain-wrapped nature of the tornado and the distance the photo was taken from, the tornado was not easily identifiable in the photo. The photographer was near where the tornado lifted or dissipated, less than a mile from the Henderson County airport. However, the tornado was still some distance away at the time of the photo.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:16 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 23:08 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 20:02 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.

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:40 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 2009 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.