EF3 tornado, Bellview to Pleasureville, Kentucky, February 28, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

February 28, 2011

Touchdown

4:59 AM EST (09:59 UTC)

Lifted

5:01 AM EST (10:01 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$500,000

County

Henry County

Touchdown point

38.351, -85.160

Lift-off point

38.367, -85.123

Record number

1102280359-01

A cold front moved through southern Indiana and central Kentucky on the morning of February 28. A strong low low level jet developed ahead of this front with winds of 60-80 knots at 2-3 thousand feet, resulting in very high speed shear and storm relative helicity values. A squall line with bowing segments developed to the west of the Louisville forecast area and crossed the region during the early to mid morning hours. This line produced multiple tornadoes across the region as well as straight line wind damage.

A NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-3 tornado with wind speeds of up to 140 mph in Henry county. The tornado touched down just to the southwest of KY 1899 (Mulberry Pike), crossing into Springhill Estates subdivision. Two homes were destroyed here along with three outbuildings. Trees were uprooted and snapped. The tornado then weakened as it traveled across KY 1359. Fifteen power poles were blown down along the highway. One barn was destroyed and another had the roof blown off. The tornado continued across KY 22 where trees were blown down and one outbuilding was damaged. The tornado lifted near Drennon Creek.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:47 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:17 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:37 UTC and running to 11:47 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 05:58 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.

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:59 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

25 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.