Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2014
EF0 tornado, Claxton, Kentucky, February 20, 2014
This EF0 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Caldwell County on February 20, 2014, touching down at 7:12 PM CST and reaching 125 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $8,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- February 20, 2014
- Touchdown
- 7:12 PM CST (01:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:14 PM CST (01:14 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.6 miles (2.6 km)
- Path width
- 125 yards (114 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $8,000
- County
- Caldwell County
- Touchdown point
- 37.100, -87.750
- Lift-off point
- 37.116, -87.729
- Record number
- 1402201912-01
The damage survey
5 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 70 mph.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Thunderstorms organized into short lines and isolated supercells as a cold front approached from Missouri. The storms strengthened within a corridor of weak to moderate instability just ahead of the eastward-moving cold front. The combination of instability, moisture, and wind shear resulted in isolated wind damage and a couple of tornadoes. The isolated tornadoes occurred in the region of strongest wind shear north and east of Kentucky Lake.
Several small trees and tree limbs were broken. Peak winds were estimated near 70 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
12 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:00 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:34 UTC and running to 02:22 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:00 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | PAH |
| 20:34 UTC | 02:22 UTC | Tornado Watch | PAH |
| 01:00 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | PAH |
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 forecast that day
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 01:00 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 air that afternoon
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.
Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z
1.2 hours before the tornado, 149 km from the path. February 21, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 231 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -78 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 196 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1039 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 61 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 346 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 386 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 1.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z
10.8 hours after it, 149 km from the path. February 21, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -87768 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1329 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 110 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -79 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -138 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The radar
The Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:13 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fort Campbell North | Christian, KY | ROOF DAMAGE TO BUILDING AND ROOF BLOWN OFF OF BARN. |
| 23:13 UTC | TSTM WND GST 55 | Pembroke | Christian, KY | |
| 23:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Allegre | Todd, KY | TREE BLOWN DOWN AND LANDED ON PARKED VEHICLE. NO PASSENGERS. ROOF DAMAGE REPORTED TO A HOME. |
| 23:23 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pembroke | Christian, KY | 3 UTILITY POLES BROKEN AND SHINGLES MISSING FROM ROOF. |
| 00:42 UTC | TORNADO | 1 W Wheatcroft | Webster, KY | ...CONFIRMED...EF-0 WITH PK WND 75 MPH. PATH LENGTH 7.5 MILES AND PATH WIDTH 125 YARDS. BEGAN 1.5 MILES W WHEATCROFT AND END 5 N CLAY. DAMAGE...SEVERAL SMALL TREES AND TREE LIMBS BROKEN AND MINOR ROOF DAMAGE TO ONE BARN. |
| 01:12 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Sw Dawson Springs | Caldwell, KY | ...CONFIRMED...EF0 WITH PK WND 70 MPH. PATH LENGTH 1 MILE AND PATH WIDTH 125 YARDS. BEGAN 5 SW DAWSON SPRINGS AND ENDING 4.5 MILES SSW DAWSON SPRINGS. DAMAGE...SEVERAL SMALL TREES AND TREE LIMBS BROKEN. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | Calvert City | Marshall, KY |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 20, 2014
33 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 20 | 2:25 PM CST | EF2 | Pike, IL | 12.1 | 80 | 1 | ||
| February 20 | 2:48 PM CST | EF0 | Morgan, IL | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| February 20 | 2:52 PM CST | EF0 | Morgan, IL | 8.2 | 50 | |||
| February 20 | 3:43 PM CST | EF0 | Sangamon, IL | 0.2 | 75 | $30,000 | ||
| February 20 | 3:57 PM CST | EF1 | Bond, IL | 12.3 | 50 | |||
| February 20 | 3:57 PM CST | EF1 | Sangamon, IL | 8.3 | 300 | $990,000 | ||
| February 20 | 4:09 PM CST | EF2 | Montgomery, IL | 22.4 | 200 | 1 | $600,000 | |
| February 20 | 4:36 PM CST | EF1 | Fayette, IL | 4.8 | 50 | |||
| February 20 | 4:39 PM CST | EF1 | Pemiscot, MO | 0.2 | 70 | 5 | $75,000 | |
| February 20 | 4:40 PM CST | EF1 | Jackson, IL | 0.4 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| February 20 | 4:40 PM CST | EF0 | Shelby, IL | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| February 20 | 4:41 PM CST | EF1 | Pemiscot, MO | 0.0 | 25 | $10,000 | ||
| February 20 | 4:54 PM CST | EF1 | Effingham, IL | 1.5 | 100 | $80,000 | ||
| February 20 | 5:43 PM CST | EF0 | Edgar, IL | 3.0 | 75 | |||
| February 20 | 7:40 PM EST | EF0 | Montgomery, IN | 7.5 | 40 | $75,000 | ||
| February 20 | 6:42 PM CST | EF0 | Webster, KY | 6.2 | 125 | $30,000 | ||
| February 20 | 7:11 PM CST | EF0 | Walthall, MS | 0.5 | 40 | $5,000 | ||
| February 20 | 7:48 PM CST | EF0 | Marion, MS | 0.5 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| February 20 | 9:32 PM EST | EF0 | Rush, IN | 0.0 | 25 | $12,000 | ||
| February 20 | 8:33 PM CST | EF1 | Evangeline Parish, LA | 2.6 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| February 20 | 8:45 PM CST | EF1 | Lawrence, AL | 10.7 | 450 | |||
| February 20 | 8:51 PM CST | EF1 | Lauderdale, AL | 1.8 | 400 | |||
| February 20 | 8:55 PM CST | EF1 | Lauderdale, AL | 2.7 | 500 | 1 | ||
| February 20 | 9:05 PM CST | EF1 | Limestone, AL | 2.7 | 500 | |||
| February 20 | 10:14 PM EST | EF1 | Ripley, IN | 0.8 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| February 20 | 9:28 PM CST | EF1 | Jones, MS | 4.6 | 100 | $400,000 | ||
| February 20 | 9:50 PM CST | EF0 | Jones, MS | 0.6 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| February 20 | 9:53 PM CST | EF1 | Moore, TN | 1.6 | 400 | |||
| February 20 | 10:53 PM EST | EF0 | Montgomery, OH | 2.0 | 80 | $150,000 | ||
| February 20 | 10:08 PM CST | EF1 | Franklin, TN | 1.1 | 100 | |||
| February 20 | 10:23 PM CST | EF1 | Franklin, TN | 2.0 | 400 | |||
| February 20 | 10:29 PM CST | EF1 | Coffee, TN | 1.2 | 250 | $200,000 | ||
| February 20 | 12:54 AM EST | EF0 | Delaware, OH | 0.1 | 80 | $100,000 |
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.