EF1 tornado, Spring Grove to Hamner, 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 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

May 10, 2016

Touchdown

6:06 PM CDT (23:06 UTC)

Lifted

6:14 PM CDT (23:14 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.7 miles (5.9 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Union County

Touchdown point

37.659, -88.023

Lift-off point

37.677, -87.960

Record number

1605101706-01

2 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 60 mph.

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

An outbreak of supercells with large hail and isolated tornadoes affected western Kentucky during the afternoon and early evening. The initial round of thunderstorms occurred early in the afternoon over northwest Kentucky. These storms, which produced a major hailstorm and flash flood in the Owensboro area, were triggered by a weak upper-level low over northern Illinois. This initial round of thunderstorms produced an outflow of cooler air that settled south into southwest Kentucky. By mid-afternoon, isolated supercells with tornadoes fired up along the leading edge of cooler air. Strong westerly upper-level winds associated with the upper-level low over Illinois provided ample wind shear for supercells. A southwest wind flow of moist and unstable air in the lower levels of the atmosphere provided fuel for the storms. Low-level winds up to around 40 knots enhanced low-level wind shear, providing a favorable environment for tornadoes. The supercells lingered well into the evening.

Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted in this tornado, which ended a couple miles west of Morganfield. The tornado was witnessed by a trained spotter. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:57 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:08 UTC and running to 00:31 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. 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:05 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.