EF2 tornado, White Plains, Kentucky, September 25, 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

September 25, 2011

Touchdown

8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)

Lifted

8:26 PM CDT (01:26 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Hopkins County

Touchdown point

37.172, -87.382

Lift-off point

37.178, -87.376

Record number

1109251925-01

A surface low pressure center moved northeast from eastern Arkansas, passing across northwest Tennessee and into western Kentucky. A closed 500 mb low was centered over the Mid-Mississippi Valley. Along and east of the surface low pressure center track, scattered strong to severe thunderstorms were embedded within a large area of rain. The storms were aided by convergence in the exit region of an intense south-southwesterly low-level jet of around 50 knots. Upper-level divergence within the right entrance region of a jet streak over northern Indiana further enhanced the storms. A couple of isolated tornadoes and microbursts accompanied the storms.

This short-lived tornado occurred along Highway 813. One framed home and one mobile home were destroyed. There was minor damage to two framed homes. Four sheds were destroyed. Power lines were blown down. Several large trees were downed or uprooted. The destroyed mobile home was thrown about 30 feet into a tree. The lone resident of the mobile home was ejected, but he sustained no injuries requiring treatment. The destroyed framed home lost most of the roof, and bricks were shifted. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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.

Fort Campbell (Aaf) (HOP), 57 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

5 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.