EF1 tornado, Thixton to Ashville, Kentucky, March 23, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

March 23, 2012

Touchdown

3:07 PM EDT (19:07 UTC)

Lifted

3:12 PM EDT (19:12 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.9 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

38.086, -85.623

Lift-off point

38.117, -85.602

Record number

1203231307-01

36 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

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

A large, nearly cut-off upper closed low located over Kansas brought several bands of convection to Kentucky and Indiana. During the early afternoon, a cluster of low-topped storms developed east of Bowling Green and moved north towards Louisville. This convection, which was barely deep enough to produce any lightning, became surface-based as slightly unstable conditions developed within a clear slot that rotated across the Lower Ohio Valley in the wake of early morning showers. A couple of these cells developed into mini-supercells with rotation. Two weak tornadoes touched down in and just east of the Louisville metro area. Additional thunderstorms with large hail developed later that evening ahead of a final disturbance rotating around the south side of the upper low.

The tornado touched down just north of the intersection of Cedar Creek and Mount Washington Roads, located around one and one half miles southeast of Quail Chase Golf Course in southeast Louisville. It moved north-northeast, crossing Cedar Creek Road several times. Near Brook Chase Court, the tornado totally destroyed one modular home, knocking it off its foundation and pancaking the first floor under the second level. One well-built brick home had it roof taken off. Numerous other homes along the path sustained damage to their roofs, siding and windows. The tornado was rated a strong EF-1, with estimated winds of 105 to 110 mph. The maximum width of the tornado was 70 yards, but during most of its path it was 40-50 yards wide.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Slight 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.

Louisville Intl (SDF), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:05 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

13 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.