EF0 tornado, Lowmansville to Ulysses, Kentucky, June 9, 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

June 9, 2013

Touchdown

5:54 PM EDT (21:54 UTC)

Lifted

5:56 PM EDT (21:56 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

Crop damage

$1,000

Counties

Johnson and Lawrence counties

Touchdown point

37.908, -82.720

Lift-off point

37.911, -82.711

Record number

1306091554-01

A large slow moving area of low pressure located over the northern plains and a large subtropical ridge of high pressure situated off the southeastern U.S. produced a steady flow of warm moist air off the Gulf of Mexico and convergence over central and eastern Kentucky on June 9th. As a result, scattered strong to severe thunderstorms formed and moved from south to north across eastern Kentucky during the afternoon and evening. One storm in particular produced sporadic wind damage and large hail in a track from near Beattyville in Lee County, then across Wolfe, Magoffin and Johnson Counties. Significant straight-line wind damage occurred from this storm in the Wheelersburg community of Magoffin County. The storm then went on to produce a short-lived tornado on the Johnson/Lawrence County line.

A warm front in the area and a mid level disturbance helped generate an organized band of thunderstorms in Kentucky during the afternoon. That large cluster of showers and thunderstorms moved northeast through eastern Kentucky during the early evening hours. The low level flow backed around to the southeast. As a result, a few stronger cells, on the southern edge of this convection, were able to maintain their strength.

The National Weather Service in Charleston, WV confirmed tree damage near the Johnson/Lawrence County line was caused by an EF0 tornado. The tornado tracked about 115 yards in Johnson County, KY before passing into Lawrence County (NWS Charleston, WV County Warning Area).

A weak tornado descended a steep hillside from the county border. The storm then went across a small narrow valley containing Youngs Branch to the adjacent hilltop. ||Peak wind gusts were estimated by the survey team at 75 mph. ||Several trees were snapped off or broken coming down the initial hillside. The 2 houses on the second hilltop sustained minor damage to soffits. One half of a barn door was ripped off. There was more soffit damage to the barn. Between the 2 residences, a large metal car port was ripped off and thrown several yards. A large fenced garden was also damaged. There was no hail, but leaves were ripped off the trees and other vegetation. The leaves were left pasted onto all sides of the homes.

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.

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 19:46 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 Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:54 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

2 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.