EF1 tornado, Harper Xrds to Quality, Kentucky, February 24, 2018

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

February 24, 2018

Touchdown

9:21 PM CST (03:21 UTC)

Lifted

9:24 PM CST (03:24 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.4 miles (2.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Butler County

Touchdown point

37.086, -86.873

Lift-off point

37.097, -86.854

Record number

1802242121-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

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

A stalled frontal boundary interacting with highly anomalous moisture from the Gulf of Mexico interacted with multiple weather systems that brought widespread heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms to central Kentucky February 24 through the early morning hours February 25. A Flash Flood Emergency was issued for Jefferson County, KY including Louisville metro. There were over 50 water rescues alone in Jefferson County that evening. Widespread flash flooding occurred with most streams and creeks reaching record levels. ||In addition, across south central Kentucky, 7 tornadoes developed along a warm front during the afternoon and evening hours. The strongest tornado was an EF-2 that tracked over 11 miles in Logan County and tragically killed a woman in her home. As a squall line moved through during the late evening and early morning hours, damaging winds occurred across central Kentucky.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm damage survey in Butler County Kentucky. The survey was challenging due to closed roads due to high water and trees blocking some country roads. The damage began near Ewing Road where trees were snapped and twisted. This continued along Graveltown Road where more trees were twisted and snapped and couple were uprooted. Wind speeds averaged 90 mph with a width of 75 to 100 yards. ||The tornado reached its peak intensity on Highway 106 where it did significant damage to a large barn. Wind speeds increased to 95 mph with a width of 100 yards. The tornado crossed Highway 106 uprooting 2 trees and then lifted 200 yards past the highway.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:14 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:34 UTC and running to 04:28 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:42 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.

Greenville (M21), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:18 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 2018 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.