EF1 tornado, Croley to Pryorsburg, Kentucky, April 26, 2017

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 26, 2017

Touchdown

7:12 PM CDT (00:12 UTC)

Lifted

7:30 PM CDT (00:30 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

12.3 miles (19.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Hickman and Graves counties

Touchdown point

36.633, -88.922

Lift-off point

36.684, -88.711

Record number

1704261812-01

22 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 95 mph.

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

Temperatures warmed into the 80's ahead of a line of thunderstorms over northwest Tennessee and the Missouri Bootheel. The line of storms became severe as it moved rapidly northeast across the Purchase area of western Kentucky. The storms formed ahead of a cold front that extended southward from a low pressure center over the St. Louis area. A combination of moderate instability, sufficient wind shear, and steep low-level lapse rates supported locally damaging winds and an isolated tornado with these storms.

This tornado began about 4.6 miles southeast of Clinton. The path crossed very close to the intersection of Highways 58 and 307, where the community of Fulgham is located. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. Three dozen homes and outbuildings received minor to moderate damage, consisting primarily of loss of shingles, siding, and trim. One home lost about a third of its roof, and another home had the back porch blown off. Several smaller outbuildings or garages were destroyed. A large chicken house lost one-quarter of its roof. Kentucky Highway 307 was closed by downed trees and power lines north of Highway 58. Hundreds of trees and tree limbs were blown down. Four eyewitnesses reported seeing the tornado near Fulgham. Most of the damage was concentrated around and just north of Fulgham. The tornado weakened somewhat as it crossed into Graves County, and the damage track became more intermittent there. The tornado crossed into Graves County about one mile north of where Highway 58 crosses the county line.

The tornado crossed from Hickman County into Graves County about one mile north of Highway 58. The tornado weakened somewhat as it crossed into Graves County, where the damage track became more intermittent. Peak winds in the Graves County portion of the track were estimated just above 80 mph. Most of the damage was concentrated in Hickman County. Much of the structural damage in the Graves County portion of the path was along Highway 339, where a barn was heavily damaged. Otherwise, the damage along the Graves County portion of the track consisted mostly of some uprooted trees and broken branches. Trees were uprooted along U.S. Highway 45 near Pryorsburg. Four eyewitnesses reported seeing the tornado near Fulgham in Hickman County.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 22:18 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.

Mayfield (M25), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:10 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 2017 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.