EF0 tornado, Hickory Flat to Highland, Kentucky, January 17, 2012

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

January 17, 2012

Touchdown

12:20 PM CST (18:20 UTC)

Lifted

12:31 PM CST (18:31 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Simpson County

Touchdown point

36.702, -86.465

Lift-off point

36.705, -86.412

Record number

1201171220-01

21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Outbuilding with cinder block walls mostly destroyed
• Small barn completely destroyed and blown into trees
• Trees down that blocked Hickory Flat Road
• Trees snapped and shed destroyed

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Low pressure moved across the southern Great Lakes during the morning hours on January 17th. A strong cold front crossed southern Indiana during the early afternoon. Ahead of this boundary, a squall line fueled by temperatures in the lower 60s with dewpoints in the upper 50s moved across the Ohio River during the late morning. This line continued to the southeast, finally exiting central Kentucky near the lake Cumberland Area around mid-afternoon. This line of storms exhibited bowing segments and occasional mesovorticies that brought several tornadoes and scattered wind damage. The 9 tornadoes surveyed across both central Kentucky and southern Indiana made this episode the most prolific regional January tornado outbreak recorded.

This long tracked EF-2 tornado had a path length of over 8 miles, touching down in Simpson County and continuing through a portion of Allen County. The twister moved from west to east, traveling 3 miles in Simpson County and 5 1/4 miles in Allen County. This tornado touched down near Hickory Flat Road just south of its intersection with Hickory Flat-Rapids Road. A dozen trees were uprooted near its touchdown. The most significant damage occurred near the intersection of McKendree Church Road and Highway 100 where a well constructed brick house completely lost its roof. Multiple barns, garages, and outbuildings were destroyed here as well. Nearby, a complete roof of one outbuilding was thrown one half mile to the east. Other significant damage was surveyed at the intersection of Highway 100 and Reeder School Road near the Simpson Allen County line. One house had severe roof damage and an exterior wall blown out. A jeep in the driveway was blown into the house. A camper was blown from the driveway across the road with other debris scattered through the field beyond.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:20 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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 2012 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.