EF2 tornado, Jordan to Fulham, Kentucky, May 2, 2010

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

May 2, 2010

Touchdown

1:05 AM CDT (06:05 UTC)

Lifted

1:25 AM CDT (06:25 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

12.5 miles (20.0 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$335,000

Counties

Fulton and Hickman counties

Touchdown point

36.522, -89.055

Lift-off point

36.635, -88.880

Record number

1005020005-01

A surface cold front extended from the Chicago area southwestward across the eastern fringes of the St. Louis metro area to a weak low pressure center over southeast Missouri. The low ejected northeast across southern and eastern Illinois, with the trailing cold front moving east across the Lower Ohio Valley. A broken cluster of severe thunderstorms, with embedded supercells and small bow echoes, moved east-northeastward across western Kentucky. Increasing south-southwesterly low level winds brought plenty of moisture northward into the Lower Ohio Valley, aiding in sufficient destabilization for supercells. The two primary supercells of the night followed similar paths across southern parts of the Purchase area, the Lakes region, and the southern Pennyrile region. Heavy rainfall with the storms, in combination with saturated ground from the May 1 storms, produced localized flash flooding.

The tornado touched down southwest of Cayce and travelled northeast, mainly damaging trees. Damage near Cayce consisted of downed trees and limbs caused by the EF-0 tornado. Near Highway 924, the tornado increased to EF-1 intensity and caused some minor damage to houses and outbuildings. One mobile home was moved a few feet, and the roof was torn back. A boat on a trailer was flipped over. Anchored television antennas were pulled out of the ground and bent. The tornado further increased in strength upon crossing into Hickman County.

The tornado crossed into Hickman County from Fulton County on U.S. Highway 51 just north of Crutchfield. Peak winds in this area were estimated near 115 mph. The EF-2 tornado damaged or destroyed several pole barns along U.S. Highway 51. One barn was over 100 feet long and was anchored by telephone poles set in concrete. Most of the poles were snapped. A few poles were pulled up, with one thrown about 50 yards. A section of U.S. 51 was closed due to downed power poles and debris. Large trees were uprooted or snapped. There was minor house damage. As the tornado continued northeast across Kentucky Highway 1070 and a nearby road, three homes were damaged. One of the houses sustained damage to an outside wall, which was pushed in about three inches. The carport attached to that wall was blown away. A two-story garage was destroyed, along with other sheds and another carport. The other two houses sustained damage to garages and siding. Windows were blown out, and a section of roof was blown off one house. The maximum path width of about 600 yards was in this area. The average path width was closer to 300 yards. The tornado then weakened significantly and produced only minor tree damage until it dissipated about a mile southwest of Fulgham.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:55 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:19 UTC and running to 10:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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.

Everett-Stewart (UCY), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:02 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 2010 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.