EF2 tornado, Gracey to Pleasant Green Hill, Kentucky, February 24, 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

February 24, 2011

Touchdown

7:50 PM CST (01:50 UTC)

Lifted

7:58 PM CST (01:58 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.7 miles (9.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$600,000

County

Christian County

Touchdown point

36.896, -87.618

Lift-off point

36.911, -87.517

Record number

1102241950-01

A powerful mid-level shortwave trough ejected east-northeast across the southern Plains, reaching the lower and mid Mississippi Valley during the night. In the lower levels, a low intensified as it tracked from Oklahoma into southern Missouri during the day, then across the Lower Ohio Valley in the evening. To the east of the low, a warm front advanced northward to the Lower Ohio Valley. Storms moving east-northeast evolved into an extensive QLCS (quasi-linear convective system) that produced scattered wind damage and a few tornadoes. Preceding the QLCS, widespread heavy rain accompanied the warm front.

Several barns were levelled, and several grain bins were destroyed. A grain bin was carried over two-thirds of a mile. One of the destroyed barns was 20 by 150 feet. There were some homes with primarily roof damage or loss of shingles. Windows were blown out. Dozens of trees were uprooted or snapped. At least ten power poles were snapped, and debris and electrical lines were across roads. State Route 91 was closed for an extended period of time. The tornado lifted as it crossed Highway 109 just a couple of miles northwest of Hopkinsville. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph. The average path width was 225 yards.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:38 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:48 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

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

12 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.