EF2 tornado, Hartford to Olaton, Kentucky, May 10, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 10, 2016

Touchdown

6:06 PM CDT (23:06 UTC)

Lifted

6:21 PM CDT (23:21 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

8.6 miles (13.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Ohio County

Touchdown point

37.464, -86.878

Lift-off point

37.520, -86.729

Record number

1605101706-02

34 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 111 mph.

• narrow tree top tornado, 40 yards wide

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

A warm moist air mass collided with several passing weather systems to spark rounds of strong to severe storms across central Kentucky during the afternoon and evening hours on May 10th. Very large hail up to 2 inches in diameter was reported along with damaging winds and a few tornadoes.

A tornado briefly touched down on Spinks Drive just off of Highway 69, initially causing EF-0 damage. The tornado was only on the ground for approximately 200 yards with a path width about 30-40 yards. A basement crawlspace door was blown out along with siding and roof damage at 125 Spinks Dr. There was evidence of isolated straight-line winds with some maple trees on Hamlin Chapel Dr. The tornado touched down for a second time at 41 El Retiro Ln where the path width increased to 50 yards and the winds speed increased to 90-95 mph. Numerous large hardwood trees were snapped and twisted. An outbuilding, previously used to make brooms, next to the house had significant damage when a large tree fell on top of it. The residents observed pea size hail. ||The tornado increased in size at 532 Stoneridge Ln. A custom-built home had exterior wall damage in the master bedroom with adjacent bathroom. Their insulation blew out in all directions in the house and the back porch resembled a snow globe. Numerous trees were down along the property as well as a grain silo. The family survived the tornado by sheltering in a 3-foot crawlspace and when they came out, there was quarter-sized hail on the ground. Winds in this area were 110 mph with a path width about 125 yards.||The tornado continued to move east northeast along the countryside uprooting twisting and damaging numerous hardwood trees. The tornado significantly increased in width to approximately 300 yards and did a lot of damage along Halls Creek Rd. At 1130 Halls Creed Road 2-inch hail occurred before the EF-2 tornado, with winds of 111 mph, did significant damage to the property, which included a 30x50 large barn sliding the wall 12 feet.||Along Walnut Rd, the tornado caused damage to several barns and numerous softwood trees and hardwood trees. Metal sheeting from barns was thrown in excess of 400 yards downwind.||At the intersection of Highway 1164 and 1544 at the Cedar Grove Church there was roof damage to the church and many trees were twisted and uprooted. The last visible damage was along Highway 1544 just east of 1164 with some trees uprooted and twisted. About 30 feet from the tree there was an outbuilding that had half its roof blown off and the roof remnants were found about 50 yards away. The tornado lifted approximately 400 yards from Highway 1544 near the intersection of 1164.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:01 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:14 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:07 UTC and running to 03:04 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 20:02 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), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:06 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

11 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.