EF1 tornado, Science Hill to Dabney, Kentucky, February 29, 2012

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

February 29, 2012

Touchdown

2:53 PM EST (19:53 UTC)

Lifted

2:55 PM EST (19:55 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Pulaski County

Touchdown point

37.179, -84.578

Lift-off point

37.181, -84.551

Record number

1202291353-01

A strong cold front sparked widespread strong to severe thunderstorms as it moved across the Ohio and Tennessee valley regions during the afternoon and early evening hours of February 29th. The bulk of the severe weather events on this day were large hail and damaging winds. Isolated flooding and two tornadoes also occurred. An EF-2 tornado was confirmed in Morgan county while an EF-1 moved through portions of western Pulaski county.

A storm damage survey team from the National Weather Service office in Louisville, Kentucky confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down in Pulaski County on February 29, 2012. Touchdown occurred about 3 miles east northeast of Science Hill and lifted or dissipated near the community of Dabney 1.5 miles to the east. Winds were estimated to have reached 110 mph. Damage included the total destruction of one barn and major damage to several others. The top of a silo was taken out and major damage occurred to the roofs of a few homes towards the end of the tornadoes path.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS JKL issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:28 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:34 UTC and running to 02:00 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 17:35 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 Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:52 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 2012 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

31 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.