EF2 tornado, Slater to Ceredo, Kentucky, April 4, 2011

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 4, 2011

Touchdown

10:20 AM CDT (15:20 UTC)

Lifted

10:27 AM CDT (15:27 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

6.4 miles (10.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$700,000

County

Ballard County

Touchdown point

37.020, -88.980

Lift-off point

37.051, -88.870

Record number

1104040920-01

Thunderstorms gradually intensified along and ahead of a cold front from Arkansas into western Kentucky. The storms occurred in a moist and strongly sheared environment, resulting in a combination of line segments and supercells which evolved into a quasi-linear convective system. There were isolated tornadoes, along with a couple small swaths of damaging winds.

Two barns were levelled on Highway 1345. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph. Average path width was about 175 yards.

Near Hinkleville, a man was trapped in a 60 by 80 foot farm building that was destroyed. He received four broken ribs. The roof was removed from a two-story house, and the garage was levelled. Several other homes sustained roof damage, including one with partial roof loss. Two mobile homes were overturned. Two large chicken barns about 45 feet wide by 250 yards long were destroyed, and two others were heavily damaged. Numerous farm buildings were destroyed, along with some grain bins. Dozens of large trees were snapped or uprooted. A mobile home was shifted slightly off its foundation at the end of the track along the McCracken County line. While damage was predominantly caused by the tornado, some damage southeast of Hinkleville was caused by straight-line winds. Peak winds were near 120 mph. Average path width was 250 yards.

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

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:25 UTC and running to 17:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:11 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.

Paducah/Barkley (PAH), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:19 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 2011 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.