EF1 tornado, Sharer to Needmore, 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 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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 4, 2011

Touchdown

12:26 PM CDT (17:26 UTC)

Lifted

12:29 PM CDT (17:29 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Butler County

Touchdown point

37.094, -86.695

Lift-off point

37.117, -86.641

Record number

1104041126-01

A cold front moved in from the west during the day on April 4. Ahead of the cold front both speed and directional shear were noted across central Kentucky with a 50-60 kt low-level jet. A QLCS with damaging winds and embedded tornadoes tracked across south-central Kentucky. This system produced 6 tornadoes across south central Kentucky as well as widespread wind damage and hail up to golf ball size.

An NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down 1.7 miles west-northwest of Sugar Grove near the intersection of Dimple and Belcher Roads. The tornado continued for four minutes along a 3.4 mile long path with winds to 100 mph, lifting 0.7 miles northeast of Needmore. The path was 50 yards wide. Near Needmore trees were snapped and a section of a residence's roof was removed. Elsewhere along the path minor roof damage occurred and a mobile home was moved from its foundation. The tornado lifted just east of the William H. Natcher/Green River Parkway.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:17 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:42 UTC and running to 19:25 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 16:29 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.

Bowling Green (BWG), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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.