EF0 tornado, Trigg Furnace, Kentucky, February 7, 2017

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

February 7, 2017

Touchdown

7:40 PM CST (01:40 UTC)

Lifted

7:45 PM CST (01:45 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (3.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Trigg County

Touchdown point

36.884, -87.936

Lift-off point

36.877, -87.904

Record number

1702071940-01

8 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 80 mph.

• Several sections of metal roofing lofted 50 to 200 feet from barn into nearby wooded area.
• 4 Large trees uprooted along a small creek.
• 1 medium tree - decayed - fell southwest across the lower rung of power lines causing nearby power outages.
• 1 large tree uprooted and 1 small tree broken.

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

During the evening, a severe thunderstorm acquired supercell characteristics for an hour or so as it moved southeast across the Lake Barkley area of Trigg County. The storm intensified along a cold front as it pressed southeast across western Kentucky. The atmosphere became sufficiently unstable for the storm to become severe during a short timeframe around sunset. The isolated severe storm was preceded by a round of storms during the morning hours, which produced locally heavy rain. The morning storms were generated by a strong south wind flow of warm and moist air.

This weak tornado touched down along Highway 274 and lifted four miles northwest of Cadiz. The tornado occurred in a hilly scenic area adjacent to Lake Barkley. At least a dozen trees were uprooted or broken. Some of the trees landed on Highway 274. One power line was partially downed by a fallen tree. Several pieces of metal roofing from a barn were lofted into nearby woods. Peak winds were estimated near 80 mph. The tornado was witnessed by a trained spotter.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:08 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 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 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 Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:41 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

15 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.