EF3 tornado, Cutuno to Kermit, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

March 2, 2012

Touchdown

6:50 PM EST (23:50 UTC)

Lifted

7:42 PM EST (00:42 UTC)

On the ground

52 minutes

Path length

49.0 miles (78.9 km)

Path width

1,320 yards (1207 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

37

Property damage

$37 million

Counties

Magoffin, Wolfe, Johnson, Martin and Mingo counties

Touchdown point

37.701, -83.275

Lift-off point

37.834, -82.382

Record number

1203021750-01

During the afternoon and evening hours of March 2nd, 2012, an historic tornado outbreak occurred in eastern Kentucky. Tornadoes struck Menifee, Morgan, Bath, Wolfe, Laurel, Johnson and Martin Counties causing a combined 16 deaths in those counties. The hardest hit areas were West Liberty in Morgan county, Salyersville in Magoffin county, and East Bernstadt in Laurel county. One of the strongest tornadoes in this outbreak, rated at EF-3 with winds estimated at 140 mph, caused extensive damage in Menifee and Morgan counties. This tornado killed 2 people in Menifee county and took an additional 6 lives in Morgan county. The town of West Liberty was particularly hard hit, with every building in the downtown area suffering some degree of damage. Several homes were swept off their foundations. ||A second EF-3 tornado touched down in extreme southeast Wolfe County and cut a path of damage across portions of Magoffin, Johnson, and Martin Counties. This twister was at its most intense strength in Magoffin and Johnson Counties, with winds estimated at 160 mph. This tornado caused catastrophic damage in parts of Salyersville. This second tornado killed 2 people in Johnson County. ||A third strong tornado caused extensive damage in and near the community of East Bernstadt in Laurel County. This tornado was rated at EF-2 and caused 6 fatalities. Most of these deaths occurred when several trailer homes were picked up and destroyed by the tornado. ||An EF-1 tornado was also confirmed in Bath County. This tornado caused extensive damage to trees, farm buildings and residences along its track. Fortunately, no deaths or injuries occurred as a result of this tornado. ||The storms that occurred on March 2nd also produced very large hail. Reports were received of hailstones as big as baseballs. Extensive damage to trees and structures due to thunderstorm wind gusts also occurred. To top it all off, the heavy rain produced by the large and powerful thunderstorms lead to flash flooding in several counties where tornadoes also occurred.

A deepening low pressure system was lifting northeast out of central Illinois around midday on Friday, the 2nd. It reached southern Michigan by evening. By late afternoon its associated warm front had pulled north into central Ohio and into central West Virginia near Charleston. Some small hail fell with the warm front across southern West Virginia during the late morning hours. The warm front struggled to move much further to the northeast. This left eastern Kentucky in the warm sector. During the late afternoon, surface dew points increased into the upper 50s in eastern Kentucky and into the lower 60s across southern Kentucky. This was ahead of the approaching cold front. ||Severe thunderstorms, including distinct supercells, moved into eastern Kentucky just before sunset. One of those supercells produced a long lived tornado that moved into Wayne County from Lawrence County, Kentucky. The tornado crossed the Tug Fork River near Glen Hayes and moved through the Dunlow, Kiahsville, Cove Gap vicinity. It weakened and disispated in Lincoln County. It was the same storm that had hit West Liberty, Kentucky earlier. A shorter track tornado formed a short time later from a separate cell, affecting portions of Lincoln County. ||Another tornado with a long track, crossed the Tug Fork River near Kermit before weakening and lifting in Mingo County. This is the first recorded tornado for Mingo County. This was same supercell thunderstorm that had hit the Salyersville, Kentucky vicinity earlier.||Flooding was also a significant problem. The warm frontal rain kept the ground saturated. The early evening thunderstorms then dumped around 1.5 inches in 3 hours, causing flash flooding on streams, mainly in Wayne and Lincoln Counties. ||In Lincoln County, the total damage from the 2 tornado paths plus the flash flooding was 1 house destroyed, 5 homes with major damage, and 8 others with minor damage. ||Around 2,300 customers lost electricity in Wayne County, with another 2000 in Lincoln County. ||In the aftermath, a few residents around Charleston, including the Kanawha County community of Tornado, found paper envelopes, cancelled checks, and pictures around their property, that had fallen from the sky. The items were from the West Liberty, Kentucky vicinity. ||This event was included with the 29th of February episode as a federal disaster. Around 130 West Virginia National Guard troops were used in the field during the course of this federal disaster. See FEMA disaster number 4059 for additional details.

A storm damage survey team from the National Weather Service in Jackson, Kentucky confirmed a tornado moved across Magoffin County during the evening hours of March 2, 2012. The tornado crossed from Wolfe County into Magoffin County at approximately 651 pm EST and rapidly intensified. The tornado crossed the Mountain Parkway several times before impacting Salyersville at 703 pm EST at EF-3 strength with wind speeds estimated at around 160 mph and a maximum path width of up to 3/4 of a mile. The hardest hit area of Salyersville included the intersection of the Mountain Parkway and Highway 460 where many businesses and structures were totally destroyed. The town of Conley also suffered widespread and extreme damage as a direct result of this tornado. The tornado tracked from Magoffin County into Johnson County between the communities of Conley and Asa at approximately 708 pm EST.

A damage survey team from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Jackson, Kentucky determined that an EF-3 tornado tracked across central Johnson County on March 2, 2012. The tornado had a path width of about 3/4 of a mile and estimated maximum wind speeds of 160 mph. The tornado crossed into Johnson County just west of the Asa community at 708 pm EST and continued east-northeast exiting the county between the Boons Camp and Davisport communities around 725 pm EST. The towns of Hagerhill and West Van Leer were particularly hard hit with several structures totally destroyed. Two fatalities occurred in Johnson county as a result of this tornado. ||Ten to twenty houses and a former church had their roofs blown off on a 3 mile stretch of Rt. 302 in West Van Leer. A house was blown onto Hwy 825 in Hagerhill, blocking the roadway. Two different apartment buildings collapsed in Hagerhill as well, one onto Hwy 321 and another on Hwy 1428.

The storm damage survey team from the Jackson Weather Office determined that a tornado exited Johnson County and entered Martin County at about 725 pm EST, 4 miles west of Davisport. The tornado had weakened to EF-2 strength by the time it entered Martin County. The tornado tracked east-northeast across Martin County and exited the county and state of Kentucky just east of Warfield at around 738 pm EST. A two story brick building and several huge trees were blown down in the town of Davella as the tornado passed by just to the north. The tornado then caused damage to the second story of a home in Debord at 732 pm EST. The tornado also caused significant damage in eastern Martin county near the communities of Beauty and Lovely around 738 pm EST. ||The tornado was on the ground for a total of 48 miles in the state of Kentucky and 49 miles total.

A tornado coming out of Martin County Kentucky crossed over the Tug Fork River and lifted just as it entered West Virginia. ||The tornado hit a ridge line just south of Kermit. Several trees were blown down. Debris was carried over the river from the Lovely vicinity of Martin County and scattered on the mountainside and across Route 52. The tornado was lifting but still came in contact with a railroad communication tower. The tower was 280 feet tall with a base elevation of 1380 feet above mean sea level. The free standing tower was fully collapsed over the back side of the ridge. It was determined that the tornado destroyed the tower before completely lifting up and dissipating. Winds of 125 mph were estimated.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS JKL issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:09 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:20 UTC and running to 02:01 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.

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:51 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.