EF3 tornado, Trout to Monitor, 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

3:41 PM EST (20:41 UTC)

Lifted

3:44 PM EST (20:44 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Trimble County

Touchdown point

38.656, -85.324

Lift-off point

38.658, -85.263

Record number

1203021441-01

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.

The massive EF-4 that crossed southern Indiana finally lifted in Trimble County after a solid path length of 49 miles. This tornado crossed the Ohio River as an EF-1 with a 200 yard wide path length. It damaged a home and two barns on Roger's Road. The barns were overturned with several trees damaged in a manner consistent with 105 mph winds. The tornado then crossed a heavily wooded area near the intersection of Routes 625 and 1838 and damaged some garage shingles. At this point, a second satellite vortex developed just to the south of the main circulation. It totally destroyed a barn on Rodgers Road and extensively damaged another. It severely damaged a rugged forested area before merging with the path of the original tornado near the confluence of Corn Creek Road, Highway 625, and Joyce Mill Road. At this point, the tornado was rated an EF2 with 115 mph estimated winds. Three mobile homes near the intersection of Route 625 and Joyce Mill Road were destroyed along with extensive damage to power lines and poles. Farther east, trees were damaged near Rawlett Lane. Before lifting, the twister brought EF-1 damage to two homes and a mobile home on New Hope Ridge Road. It lifted around 2 miles west of Highway 421.

The tornado first touched down about 5 miles south of Milton just southwest of the intersection of Routes 421 and 1226. After damaging several trees just west of Route 421, this narrow funnel rapidly increased in intensity as it crossed Route 421 and struck Milton Firestation number 2. The station was heavily damaged with the collapse of rigid frames. A two ton concession trailer was moved 30 yards, while a pickup truck was moved 60 yards. Damage to the fire station and a pumper exceeded 300 thousand dollars. Damage to the station indicated 140 mph winds and a tornado with EF-3 intensity. After extensively damaging many trees along Route 1226, the tornado weakened to an EF-1 at 871 Palmyra Road. ||At this point witnesses described one vortex lifting while another descended from its parent wall cloud. Rapidly strengthening to an EF-3, it destroyed several homes on Culls Road. One of these homes had collapsed exterior walls. The tornado knocked over a large truss tower connected with an major electrical transmission line. The tornado weakened and damaged several trees with estimated 80 to 90 mph winds as it moved east into Carroll County.

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

35 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:06 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 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.

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:43 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.