Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2012

EF1 tornado, Finchville to Joyes, Kentucky, March 23, 2012

Name: EF1 tornado, Finchville to Joyes, Kentucky, March 23, 2012
Start: 2012-03-23T19:28:00.000Z
End: 2012-03-23T19:33:00.000Z
Location: Finchville to Joyes, Kentucky

From Finchville to Joyes, this EF1 tornado ran 2.2 miles across Shelby County on March 23, 2012, touching down at 3:28 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

The record

Rating: EF1
Date: March 23, 2012
Touchdown: 3:28 PM EDT (19:28 UTC)
Lifted: 3:33 PM EDT (19:33 UTC)
On the ground: 5 minutes
Path length: 2.2 miles (3.5 km)
Path width: 50 yards (46 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $25,000
County: Shelby County
Touchdown point: 38.149, -85.289
Lift-off point: 38.174, -85.265
Record number: 1203231328-01

What the Weather Service recorded

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.

This tornado touched down 1.6 miles east-southeast of Finchville just north of the end of Duvall Lane. It then traveled north-northeast and produced a track of just over 2 miles over mainly plowed field and strips of forest. Two barns were destroyed. Two other barns has much of their roofs removed. In one case, portions of the roof were strewn downwind across a field and became lodged within a grove of trees. More than two dozen trees were snapped or uprooted. It lifted 1 mile south of the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Interstate 64.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 23, 3:10 PM EDT, 18 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 23, 3:10 PM EDT, 18 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 23, 11:32 AM EDT, 3 hours 56 minutes before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Mar 23, 1:58 PM EDT, 1 hour 30 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
158 PM EDT FRI MAR 23 2012

KYZ029-038-045-231830-
BULLITT-NELSON-SPENCER-
158 PM EDT FRI MAR 23 2012

...STRONG THUNDERSTORM WITH DANGEROUS LIGHTNING...HEAVY RAIN...HALF
INCH HAIL...AND 50 MPH WINDS...

AT 155 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A
STRONG THUNDERSTORM 8 MILES NORTH OF BARDSTOWN...AND MOVING NORTH AT
35 MPH.

OCCASIONAL LIGHTNING...HEAVY RAINFALL...HALF INCH HAIL...AND STRONG
GUSTY WINDS OF AROUND 45 TO 50 MPH ARE ALL POSSIBLE WITH THIS STORM.

* THIS STORM WILL ALSO IMPACT...
  TAYLORSVILLE...
  WAKEFIELD AND SMITHVILLE...
  WATERFORD AND CRENSHAW...
  ELK CREEK AND NORMANDY...

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM...SEEK SHELTER INDOORS AND STAY
AWAY FROM WINDOWS. STAY TUNED TO NOAA ALL HAZARDS
RADIO...WEATHER.GOV/LOUISVILLE ON THE INTERNET...OR LOCAL MEDIA FOR
LATER UPDATES AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

&&

LAT...LON 3807 8517 3805 8514 3782 8537 3788 8558
      3808 8557 3808 8555 3812 8543
TIME...MOT...LOC 1757Z 200DEG 31KT 3794 8543

AL

Local storm report, Mar 23, 2:35 PM EDT, 53 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
235 PM EDT FRI MAR 23 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0214 PM     TORNADO          FERN CREEK              38.16N  85.60W
03/23/2012                   JEFFERSON          KY   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN THE HERITAGE CREEK AREA

&&

EVENT NUMBER LMK1200463

RL

Special weather statement, Mar 23, 3:00 PM EDT, 28 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
300 PM EDT FRI MAR 23 2012

KYZ033-034-231930-
HENRY-SHELBY-
300 PM EDT FRI MAR 23 2012

...STRONG THUNDERSTORM WITH DANGEROUS LIGHTNING...HEAVY RAIN...HALF
INCH HAIL...AND 40 MPH WINDS...

AT 256 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A
STRONG THUNDERSTORM 6 MILES NORTHEAST OF SHELBYVILLE...AND MOVING
NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH.

OCCASIONAL LIGHTNING...HEAVY RAIN WITH RAINFALL RATES OF AROUND ONE
INCH PER HOUR REDUCING VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN ONE MILE...HALF INCH
HAIL...AND GUSTY WINDS OF AROUND 35 TO 40 MPH...ARE EXPECTED WITH
THIS STORM.

* THIS STORM WILL ALSO IMPACT...
  PLEASUREVILLE AND ELMBURG...
  DEFOE AND NORTH PLEASUREVILLE...
  BETHLEHEM...
  SLABTOWN AND FRANKLINTON...

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM...SEEK SHELTER INDOORS AND STAY
AWAY FROM WINDOWS. STAY TUNED TO NOAA ALL HAZARDS RADIO...
WEATHER.GOV/LOUISVILLE ON THE INTERNET...OR LOCAL MEDIA FOR LATER
UPDATES AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

&&

LAT...LON 3856 8500 3851 8502 3852 8499 3849 8499
      3846 8494 3847 8492 3846 8490 3844 8492
      3842 8488 3840 8488 3837 8491 3834 8499
      3834 8497 3820 8511 3829 8522 3858 8504
TIME...MOT...LOC 1900Z 216DEG 23KT 3830 8513

AMS

The surface observations

Capital City Airport/Frankfort (FFT), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:28 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2012 tornado in Kentucky Every tornado in Kentucky since 1950 Warnings in force in Kentucky now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 23, 2012

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 23	9:26 AM CDT	EF1	Pike, AL	1.7	700
March 23	11:33 AM CDT	EF0	Cape Girardeau, MO	0.3	50			$10,000
March 23	11:38 AM CDT	EF1	Cape Girardeau, MO	0.6	300
March 23	12:14 PM CDT	EF0	Jackson, IL	1.8	50
March 23	12:24 PM CDT	EF1	Jackson, IL	7.5	125			$75,000
March 23	12:48 PM CDT	EF0	Geneva, AL	1.7	25			$25,000
March 23	1:26 PM CDT	EF2	Jefferson, IL	2.6	100	1	2	$150,000
March 23	1:57 PM CDT	EF0	Marion, IL	0.0	10
March 23	3:07 PM EDT	EF1	Jefferson, KY	2.4	70			$300,000
March 23	3:20 PM EDT	EF0	Early, GA	3.5	25			$5,000
March 23	4:30 PM EDT	EF0	Switzerland, IN	0.1	25
March 23	7:50 PM EDT	EF0	Clinton, OH	0.4	50			$50,000
March 23	8:30 PM EDT	EF0	Warren, OH	0.4	50			$20,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.