EF2 tornado, Humble to Windsor, 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 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 29, 2012

Touchdown

1:22 PM CST (19:22 UTC)

Lifted

1:28 PM CST (19:28 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

7.2 miles (11.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$210,000

Counties

Russell and Casey counties

Touchdown point

37.118, -85.081

Lift-off point

37.117, -84.951

Record number

1202291322-01

Low pressure deepened rapidly as it moved north into Wisconsin during the early morning hours on the 29th of February. A regional severe weather outbreak developed during the early morning hours across Kansas, southern Missouri and southern Illinois. As a squall line entered western and central Kentucky, strong low level shear allow discrete supercells to form along this line. Several tornadoes and widespread severe hail developed during the late afternoon and early morning hours.

An EF-2 tornado touched down just north of Russell Springs west of Route 127. The complete track of the tornado was 7.2 miles across Russell and Casey Counties. It intensified east of Route 127 with the worst damage occurring along a 1.5 mile stretch from Route 76 east over Oak Grove Road to Pattie Ridge Road. On Route 76, two mobile homes were totally destroyed and a modular built home was heavily damaged and moved off its foundation. The tornado tracked for a total of 5.8 miles before crossing the border into Casey County.||The tornado first touched down north of Russell Springs in northern Russell County west of Highway 127 where it did minor damage to trees, barns, and outbuildings. It intensified as it moved east, with the worst damage occurring along a 1.5 mile stretch from Highway 76 eastward over Oak Grove Road to Pattie Ridge Road. On Highway 76 a mobile home was destroyed and a nearby modular home was rotated 30-80 feet counterclockwise off its foundation, with a quarter of the home blown away. Two residents survived in an underground tornado shelter where they took refuge. One quarter mile east of these two homes, a modular home was completely destroyed when it became airborne and crashed to the ground 50 yards away. Residents were not home at the time of the tornado at this or any of the other homes destroyed along its path. ||On Pattie Ridge Road, another mobile home was completely destroyed along with two outbuildings. An east-facing exterior sidewall of a neighboring single-story brick home collapsed, with extensive roof damage to a large metal outbuilding at this location. Just before exiting the county, the tornado tore 80 feet of roofing off a large dairy barn and scattered debris through a nearby grove of trees. |||The tornado weakened as it moved into southern Casey County where it damaged more trees, barns, and outbuildings. The tornado lifted west-southwest of Windsor.

An EF-2 tornado that begin just north of Russell Springs in Russell County, weakened as it moved into Casey County just north of State Highway 80. While in Casey County, the twister did EF-1 damage to an outbuilding. Numerous trees were uprooted and destroyed along a 1.4 mile path in Casey County before the tornado lifted two and a quarter miles west-southwest of Windsor.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:14 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:38 UTC and running to 23:36 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.

Monticello (EKQ), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:23 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.