EF1 tornado, Neafus to Caneyville, 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

12:38 PM CDT (17:38 UTC)

Lifted

12:42 PM CDT (17:42 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Grayson County

Touchdown point

37.383, -86.561

Lift-off point

37.386, -86.499

Record number

1104041138-01

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 began at the Butler/Grayson County line just north of Dog Creek Road and ended near the intersection of J. D. Hudson Road and Coats Road. Winds reached 100 mph along its 3 mile long and 125 yard wide path. The storm cut a very narrow path through trees immediately west of KY 79 near Gracie Lane, with a number of trees snapped and uprooted. One of the trees along Gracie Lane fell on power lines, tearing them down. Metal roofing on a barn was blown off and pushed a few hundred yards downwind into the woods. A small well-constructed shed was pushed over onto its side, and another small shed was destroyed. In addition a nearby house had its metal roof blown off. The tornado may have begun to skip intermittently through some woods east of KY 79 as only a few trees lost some limbs near the intersection of Delmar Lindsey Lane and Lawrence Hayes Road. However, just to the east of this location, along Coats Road, a metal outbuilding was destroyed consistent with EF-1 damage.

An NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down in Caneyville and lifted a mile east of Caneyville, with a path width of 200 yards and wind speeds to 100 mph. The funnel reached the ground near the intersection of North Main Street and River Park Drive where a tree was blown down onto a restaurant. Next to that location a baseball field had the metal roofs blown off the cinder block dugout with a number of cinder blocks blown several feet east of the dugout. A few trees were snapped as well. About half a mile to the east along US 62 at the Caneyville Milling Company three large empty metal grain bins were moved off their foundations causing damage to nearby objects. A mobile home had its metal roof blown off into a nearby pond and insulation was blown along the ground and into a couple of trees. A tractor trailer was blown over and several trees were uprooted or snapped.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:32 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 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), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:39 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.