Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2015

EF0 tornado, Farmington, Kentucky, June 19, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Graves County on June 19, 2015, touching down at 1:30 PM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $4,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 19, 2015
Touchdown
1:30 PM CDT (18:30 UTC)
Lifted
1:36 PM CDT (18:36 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
1.8 miles (2.9 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$4,000
Crop damage
$5,000
County
Graves County
Touchdown point
36.676, -88.519
Lift-off point
36.695, -88.496
Record number
1506191230-01

The damage survey

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 74 mph.

  • Corn whipped around and some blown down. Approx. 150 yards wide swath between KY Hwy 80 and KY-564.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Rain bands associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill produced isolated tornadoes and locally strong winds. The convective character of the bands increased during the afternoon due to short intervals of sunshine that destabilized the atmosphere. The surface low pressure center that constituted the remnants of Bill was located over the extreme southeast corner of Missouri during the afternoon. Rain bands rotated northward across western Kentucky ahead of the low pressure center.

Several trees and tree limbs were blown down. Swaths of corn and wheat were blown down in farm fields. The tornado began along Kentucky Highway 80 near Farmington, then moved northeast across Highway 564. Peak winds were estimated by a damage survey team near 75 mph. The average path width was about 75 yards.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:32 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 air that afternoon

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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

6.5 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. June 19, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2015-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1388 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 995 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2015-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 69 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1388 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
788 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
995 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

5.5 hours after it, 182 km from the path. June 20, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2015-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 1311 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2015-06-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
168 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1311 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mayfield (M25), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:35 UTC80.671.6170° 11 kt201012.9-RA
16:55 UTC82.473.4170° 9 kt171012.5
17:15 UTC82.471.6180° 10 kt181012.2
17:35 UTC73.473.4160° 8 kt171011.9
17:55 UTC7773.4180° 4 kt1011.9
18:15 UTC78.875.2190° 3 kt1011.2
18:35 UTC78.875.2260° 15 kt181011.9
18:55 UTC73.473.4170° 7 kt1011.5
19:15 UTC73.471.6150° 12 kt161011.2
19:35 UTC75.271.6150° 11 kt191010.5
19:55 UTC7773.4160° 14 kt211010.2
20:15 UTC78.871.6160° 11 kt211009.8

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

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:29 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 E MayfieldGraves, KYLATE REPORT. TREE LIMBS DOWN THROUGHOUT THE AREA.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 19, 2015

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1912:30 PM CDTEF1Marion, IL1.750
June 192:26 PM CDTEF0Lawrence, IL0.125$25,000
June 193:13 PM CDTEF0White, IL4.9200$5,000
June 193:40 PM CDTEF0Perry, IN0.350
June 193:57 PM CDTEF1Johnson, IL0.450$5,000
June 194:45 PM CDTEF0Richland, IL0.130$10,000
June 194:50 PM CDTEF0Richland, IL0.550$20,000
June 194:51 PM CDTEF1Franklin, IL0.9150$500,000
June 194:53 PM CDTEF1Jackson, IL0.275$25,000
June 195:30 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, IL0.550$2,000
June 196:01 PM CDTEF0Perry, IL0.130
June 195:45 PM MDTEF0Carter, MT1.050
June 198:57 PM MDTEF2Meade, SD19.7100$100,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.