EF1 tornado, Tyler to Protemus, Kentucky, June 7, 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 7, 2014

Touchdown

2:48 PM CDT (19:48 UTC)

Lifted

3:45 PM CDT (20:45 UTC)

On the ground

57 minutes

Path length

18.2 miles (29.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$270,000

Counties

New Madrid, Lake, Fulton and Obion counties

Touchdown point

36.556, -89.497

Lift-off point

36.390, -89.252

Record number

1406071348-01

Thunderstorms formed along and ahead of a cold front that extended south from a low pressure center near St. Louis. A couple of intensifying clusters of thunderstorms with embedded supercells tracked east-southeast into a strongly unstable air mass. One embedded supercell tracked across the southwest corner of Kentucky with strong rotation, and a tornado was produced as it crossed the Mississippi River. Another cluster of storms produced a macroburst that tracked 26 miles across the Mayfield and Murray areas. Moderately strong deep-layer wind shear coupled with surface dew points in the lower 70's provided a favorable environment for the severe activity.

Thunderstorms formed along and ahead of a cold front that extended south from a low pressure center near St. Louis. A couple of intensifying clusters of thunderstorms with embedded supercells tracked east-southeast into a strongly unstable air mass. One embedded supercell tracked across the New Madrid area with strong rotation, and a tornado was produced as it reached the Mississippi River. The other supercell tracked west and south of Poplar Bluff. Moderately strong deep-layer wind shear coupled with surface dew points in the lower 70's provided a favorable environment for the severe activity.

A leftover outflow boundary from the previous nights convection over Kansas and Oklahoma triggered redevelopment of showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon hours of June 7th, 2014. The storms moved into Northeast Arkansas...the Missouri Bootheel and Northwest Tennessee during the late afternoon into the evening hours. The storms became severe due to the warm and unstable airmass in place. The storms produced large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding, and one tornado.

The tornado touched down in the New Madrid bend area of western Fulton County. The New Madrid bend is a bend in the Mississippi River that carves out a plot of land in Fulton County that is not contiguous with the remainder of Fulton County. Hundreds of trees were snapped. Corn fields were flattened. Due to the rural nature of the area, no structures were impacted. Peak winds were estimated near 110 mph. The tornado continued southeast across the Mississippi River into extreme southeast New Madrid County, Missouri near Donaldson Point.

The tornado moved southeast across the Mississippi River from extreme western Fulton County, Kentucky into extreme southeast New Madrid County, Missouri. Hundreds of trees were snapped. Corn fields were flattened. No structures were in the path of the tornado. Peak winds were estimated near 110 mph. The tornado then moved southeast into Lake County, Tennessee.

A tornado crossed over the Mississippi River from New Madrid County, Missouri and tracked through Lake County into Obion County. Damage across Lake County consisted of mainly tree damage with clear cutting and snapping of trees near the levee near the river towards Reelfoot Lake.

A tornado crossed into Obion County from Lake County, Tennessee and continued southeast. The tornado caused roof damage to ten homes especially along Possum Trot Road and Treece Road. Significant tree damage also occurred along the path. The tornado lifted near the intersection of Shawtown Road and Davis Road, northwest of Troy.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:25 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:44 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 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.

Everett-Stewart (UCY), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:48 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

10 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.