EF2 tornado, Chambers to Sample, Kentucky, March 2, 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

March 2, 2012

Touchdown

2:38 PM CST (20:38 UTC)

Lifted

2:53 PM CST (20:53 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

16.5 miles (26.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$190,000

Counties

Hancock and Breckinridge counties

Touchdown point

37.834, -86.781

Lift-off point

37.857, -86.468

Record number

1203021438-01

A surface Low over Missouri early in the afternoon of March 2nd strengthened to below 990mb as it moved north into Michigan by the evening hours. Around dawn, a warm front moved north of the Ohio River. Scattered strong storms developed along this front across northern Kentucky, bringing several reports of dime sized hail. By mid afternoon, the combination of strong wind shear, temperatures rising to the upper 70s and over 2000 Joules/kg of CAPE led to the development of numerous supercells. Several of these storms produced tornadoes not only in north central Kentucky, but later in the evening across eastern Kentucky. Large hail was common, with several reports of baseball sized hail that damaged automobiles and roofs.

This tornado had intermittent touchdowns along a long track that began 7 miles west of Cloverport. It traveled in Hancock County for 6 miles before entering Breckinridge County 1 mile west of Cloverport. The tornado first touched down along Route 2181. Vinyl siding was removed from a home and small outbuildings were damaged. It then continued eastward, intermittently touching down and crossing Route 69. Four miles west of Cloverport, additional minor damage was surveyed to a group of homes along Route 2169. This tornado brought EF-1 damage to Hancock County.

This tornado originally touched down 7 miles west of Cloverport in Hancock County. It crossed into Breckinridge County around one mile west of Cloverport and had an intermittent 10 mile track, bringing the total path length across both counties to 17 miles. The twister lifted just west of Cloverport and touched down again just east of town, uprooting numerous soft and hardwood trees. The tornado strengthened to an EF-2 as it destroyed two homes on New Bethel-Cloverport Road. Farther east, near B Flood Road, several other structures received EF-1 damage. Several chicken farms had major damage with a significant loss of poultry. Just before lifting east of Route 269, the tornado downed several trees and did additional damage to a metal structure.

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 20:26 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:05 UTC and running to 22:51 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Owensboro/Daviess (OWB), 49 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:37 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

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.