EF2 tornado, Tonieville to Roanoke, Kentucky, June 26, 2013

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 26, 2013

Touchdown

11:25 PM EDT (03:25 UTC)

Lifted

11:36 PM EDT (03:36 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

6.7 miles (10.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Larue County

Touchdown point

37.621, -85.799

Lift-off point

37.658, -85.686

Record number

1306262125-01

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 131 mph.

• 6200 Block of Rineyville-Big Springs Rd
• impact debris on mobile home. SW facing side.
• outdoor shed and playground.
• Metal shop building had its sheeting roof ripped off and thrown downwind 100-150 yds. Garage doors bent and pushed in. Insulation thrown around. Trees nearby uprooted and branches snapped.

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

Multiple rounds of convection developed on June 26th across southern Indiana, sliding southeast into north central Kentucky. In all, three episodes of heavy thunderstorms contributed to localized flash flooding across north central Kentucky, including Louisville, Lexington, and in Madison County. The last two episodes, arriving during the late-afternoon and late-evening hours, brought wind damage, flooding and one long-tracked strong tornado in LaRue County. At the beginning of the day, Kentucky lay in a very humid airmass, with dewpoints in the lower 70s. During the pre-dawn hours, the remains of a decaying nocturnal mesoscale convective system brought widespread substantial rains to Louisville and areas eastward along and north of Interstate 64 towards Frankfort. Some areas in metropolitan Louisville received over 1 inch of rain. This convective system didn't penetrate very far into Kentucky before dissipating, leaving an undisturbed airmass for later in the afternoon. A second wave of storms moved southeast across the same area during the mid-afternoon hours. These were surface-based and brought localized flash flooding and wind damage. The final round of storms moved southeast of the Ohio River near and southwest of Louisville around mid-evening, supported by a strong digging shortwave moving southeast across Illinois. This final round of storms brought additional flash flooding, damaging winds, and a tornado.

During the late evening hours, a bowing segment embedded within a lengthy line of storms parallel to and south of the Ohio River began to surge southeast. On the northeast section of this segment, a reflectivity notch became apparent. A circulation developed and quickly spawned an EF-2 tornado across northern LaRue County. ||The tornado touched down near the Hardin-LaRue county line between Routes 210 and 61 just northeast of Tonieville. On Castleman Road, just northeast of the Castleman-Carter Brother's Road intersection, a metal shop had its metal sheeting roof removed and thrown downwind around 100 yards. Its garage door was bent and insulation was scattered about. Several trees were uprooted near this location. Damage was estimated as EF-1. ||Downstream, on Carter Brother's Road, a large RV was blown on its side within a mostly destroyed shed. A two story pole tobacco barn was destroyed. Many Red and White Oak trees were either sheared off or had lost many large limbs. Across the road a metal livestock building was destroyed with chaotic damage around a house. Winds here were estimated at around 115 mph, or EF-2.| |Along State Road 1607, not far from the intersection of Salem Church and Dan Dunn Roads, a silo was caved in and a portion of a corn field flattened. ||Considerable damage was surveyed along portions of Slack Road. A one-room schoolhouse was destroyed. A dairy farm had several buildings destroyed, along with many trees uprooted. Based on damage to this dairy farm, tornadic winds up to 130 mph were estimated, near the high end of the EF-2 scale. Also along Slack Road, a two-story house has its entire roof removed. Blown-in insulation was caked on the entire side of a house. A shed was destroyed along with a few trees. The tornado lifted around one fifth of a mile northeast of Nuff Cemetery, near the intersection of Trumbull and Roanoke Roads.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:25 UTC and running to 04:00 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:26 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

3 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.