EF1 tornado, Sturgis to Sullivan, Kentucky, June 4, 2014

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

June 4, 2014

Touchdown

6:16 PM CDT (23:16 UTC)

Lifted

6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Union County

Touchdown point

37.540, -87.967

Lift-off point

37.523, -87.966

Record number

1406041716-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• shingles off roof. some large branches down.
• 2 trees uprooted. home is fine.
• damage to fairground building and nearby RVs. large tree limbs down across grounds.
• lots of tree debris along with destruction of outbuilding/silo.

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

Thunderstorms intensified along and ahead of a cold front as it pushed south across the Lower Ohio Valley. A very unstable air mass fueled intense thunderstorm development during the late afternoon hours. The initial activity included storms that were discrete and supercellular in nature, with damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes. As storm coverage increased during the evening, the storms merged and evolved into a forward propagating mesoscale convective system across southern parts of western Kentucky. The slow southward movement of the storms resulted in very intense rainfall rates and local flooding. The storms were located within a very moist air mass, with precipitable water values from 1.5 to 1.8 inches.

The tornado moved along Highway 109 from the east edge of Sturgis to just south of the Sturgis Municipal Airport. Damage was mainly to trees, including several that were snapped or uprooted. A couple of homes sustained soffit and shingle damage. Two outbuildings were destroyed. One of them was thrown about 75 yards into a group of trees. Peak winds were estimated between 105 and 110 mph.

The tornado moved through a partially wooded area southeast of Sturgis along the Union/Webster County line. Several trees were snapped or uprooted. Peak winds were estimated near 110 mph. The tornado continued moving southeast into Webster County.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:43 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:29 UTC and running to 00:26 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 22:10 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.

Marion (5M9), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:15 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 2014 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.