EF1 tornado, Gresham, Kentucky, July 13, 2015

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

July 13, 2015

Touchdown

5:20 PM CDT (22:20 UTC)

Lifted

5:22 PM CDT (22:22 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Green County

Touchdown point

37.209, -85.442

Lift-off point

37.203, -85.456

Record number

1507131620-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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

A series of upper level disturbances moved from the Upper Midwest into the lower Ohio Valley and interacted with a moist, warm and unstable atmosphere. Strong to severe thunderstorms developed and then organized into bowing segments across the area, spawning three weak tornadoes in addition to widespread areas of downburst wind damage. Thousands of trees were downed, causing scattered power outages and some structural damage. In addition, due to the very wet antecedent conditions, flash flooding occurred in several locations, resulting in closed and impassable roads, water rescues and significant property damage. The most widespread and hardest hit areas were along and east of Interstate 65 in central Kentucky. Rainfall amounts over the period were in excess of 5 to 7 inches. Several rivers across the region went above flood stage, cresting several feet above flood stage.

This brief tornado tracked for approximately 1.1 miles with a maximum width of 50 yards. The highest winds were estimated to have been 95 to 105 mph. The tornado destroyed two barns and one mobile home in addition to considerable roof damage to six outbuildings along Ebenezer Road and Highway 61 southeast of Greensburg.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:55 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:25 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:55 UTC and running to 00:00 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 Moderate 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.

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 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 2015 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.