EF0 tornado, Lotus to Browningtown, Kentucky, May 14, 2014

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

May 14, 2014

Touchdown

2:23 PM EDT (18:23 UTC)

Lifted

2:27 PM EDT (18:27 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Bullitt County

Touchdown point

37.932, -85.588

Lift-off point

37.950, -85.572

Record number

1405141223-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Uprooted tree crushed trampoline
• numerous shingles torn off, minor fascia damage. NO damage to roofing underlayment.
• hollow top of large limb of tree;
• 1' trunk snapped on hickory tree

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

A deep slow moving upper level trough located over the Lower Mississippi Valley led to the development of low pressure, which moved from western Tennessee to just west of Louisville on May 14th. Ahead of this cyclone, ample moisture brought heavy rain and thunderstorms to central Kentucky, beginning during the early morning hours. Shortly after dawn, a line of thunderstorms began to train along a thin strip over Hancock County, Kentucky, and extending northwards into southern Indiana. Three to as much as 4 inches of rain fell within a 2 hour period, leading to flash flooding. Later in the day, modest instability developed across the Bluegrass Region and east central Kentucky. A couple of waves of thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours, bringing several rounds of heavy rain and isolated severe weather.

An EF-0 tornado with estimated winds between 65 and 80 mph touched down and snapped a tree at a residence along Lotus Street. It then moved northeast and removed several shingles from another home along this same street. Several large branches were downed near this home as well. Several trees were also toppled in a wooded area behind this home. A neighbor along Deatsville Road had a tree fall and crush a trampoline. Farther north along Deatsville Road, a resident lost a large section of a tree and had minor siding damage along the east side of his home. A mile farther to the northeast, just before lifting, the tornado sheared off a portion of a row of trees adjacent to Maraman Road. The maximum wind speed was estimated based on snapped 1 to 2 foot diameter tree trunks. Structural damage resulted from winds estimated at 65 to 70 mph.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:53 UTC and running to 01:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 15:39 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), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:22 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

8 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.