EF1 tornado, Pettit to Thurston, Kentucky, April 27, 2016

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

April 27, 2016

Touchdown

6:36 PM CDT (23:36 UTC)

Lifted

6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Daviess County

Touchdown point

37.768, -87.061

Lift-off point

37.789, -87.015

Record number

1604271736-01

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

• More than half of the mobile home was destroyed. 2 residents took shelter in the windowless portion which was not destroyed.
• Resident claimed lightning struck this tree also.
• Field vegetation blown down in swirling pattern. Approx. 100 yard width.
• Car badly damaged due to flying debris, especially from carport.

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

Large clusters of thunderstorms developed northeastward across western Kentucky as the lower atmosphere warmed and moistened during the afternoon hours. A tongue of low-level moisture extended from northern Mississippi northward across far western Kentucky. Thunderstorms within the moist corridor were aided by large-scale ascent associated with an upper-level trough over the Lower Mississippi Valley. Deep-layer wind shear of 30 to 40 knots was sufficient for several supercell structures which produced large hail and a few tornadoes.

This weak tornado touched down on the west side of U.S. Highway 431 near Panther Creek. Dozens of trees or large tree limbs were broken. There was partial shingle loss and other minor damage to several homes. One home had the front porch blown off. A barn had doors blown off. One vehicle was badly damaged. A stand-alone carport was blown about one-tenth of a mile. Several fences were blown over. The damage path ended near the southeast city limits of Owensboro along U.S. Highway 60, near the intersection with U.S. Highway 231. Peak winds were estimated near 80 mph.

One mobile home was destroyed. At least two dozen other mobile homes were damaged. Mainly minor damage was reported to the mobile homes. Dozens of trees or large limbs were broken. A carport and several privacy fences were blown down. Several homes had partial loss of shingles. The damage path was just south of U.S. Highway 60 between Owensboro and the small community of Thruston. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:33 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:14 UTC and running to 00:29 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 20:04 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:36 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 2016 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.