EF0 tornado, Lynn Grove to Wiswell, Kentucky, January 29, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

January 29, 2013

Touchdown

11:36 PM CST (05:36 UTC)

Lifted

11:39 PM CST (05:39 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Calloway County

Touchdown point

36.593, -88.426

Lift-off point

36.600, -88.389

Record number

1301292336-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• SEVERAL SHEDS AND OUTBUILDINGS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. DOG KENNEL WITH SOLID WOOD DECK LOFTED OVER TOP ADJACENT SHED. SUPPORT COLUMNS OM HOMES PORCH SHIFTED SEVERAL INCHES. METAL CARPORT DEMOLISHED AND FLUNG OVER ANOTHER HOMES ROOF. OTHER HOMES WITH MINOR SHINGLE DAMAGE. SEVERAL SHALLOW ROOTED TREES UPROOTED. OAK TREE WITH PARTIALLY ROTTEN CORE BROKEN AT BASE. TWO CARS WITH WINDOWS BROKEN BY FALLEN LIMBS.

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

A line of thunderstorms intensified as it moved east from Missouri. The storms increased as they moved into slightly more unstable air associated with a strengthening low level jet. The storms were aided by the approach of a strong upper level trough. Despite weak instability, winds of 90 knots in the lowest 3 kilometers coupled with extreme shear values resulted in damaging winds and isolated tornadoes with the strongest storms. Ahead of the thunderstorms, strong southerly gradient winds gusted up to 45 mph, mainly along and southeast of a line from Owensboro to Murray.

Several outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. A dog kennel was picked up and destroyed. Several shallow-rooted trees were uprooted, and one tree was snapped. A carport was destroyed. There was minor roof damage to some homes, mostly shingles blown off. Porch columns on a home were shifted. There was light damage to a total of nine homes along State Route 94. Two car windows were broken by falling tree limbs. A power pole was snapped at the intersection of Highways 94 and 783. The average path width was 50 yards. Peak winds were estimated near 80 mph.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:29 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:37 UTC and running to 07:32 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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.

Murray (CEY), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:34 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 2013 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.