EF1 tornado, Sharpsburg, Kentucky, October 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

October 7, 2014

Touchdown

4:35 PM EDT (20:35 UTC)

Lifted

4:36 PM EDT (20:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bath County

Touchdown point

38.206, -83.939

Lift-off point

38.212, -83.931

Record number

1410071435-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JKL, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

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

A severe weather outbreak occurred across eastern Kentucky during the late afternoon and evening hours of October 7th. Three confirmed tornadoes occurred in Bath and Pike counties (2 in Bath and 1 in Pike). These twisters caused varying degrees of damage to trees, power lines, and various structures in both counties. These tornadoes were small and extremely short lived, which made them quite difficult to detect on radar. Numerous reports of large hail and wind damage were also received during this event. Some minor flooding occurred where numerous thunderstorms tracked across the same areas. The storms formed in a warm and only slightly unstable air mass that had set up across central and eastern Kentucky. The primary trigger for the severe and tornadic storms was a very strong and dynamic middle and upper level wind field that was present over the region. The rapid change in wind speed with height caused most every thunderstorm that formed on this day to rotate. A few of these circulations were able to reach the surface in Bath and Pike counties where the tornadoes were reported.

An EF-1 tornado, with peak winds of 90 mph, touched down near Sharpsburg. The path length was about 0.6 miles with a maximum width of 50 yards. The tornado damaged three barns while it was on the ground. There was also sporadic damage to trees along the tornado's path.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:05 UTC and running to 02:02 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 19:59 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.

Mount Sterling (IOB), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:37 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

12 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.