EF0 tornado, Mont, Kentucky, July 31, 2018

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

July 31, 2018

Touchdown

6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)

Lifted

6:12 PM CDT (23:12 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lyon County

Touchdown point

36.874, -88.166

Lift-off point

36.881, -88.150

Record number

1807311710-01

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.

A rapidly developing convective cell produced a brief waterspout. The developing thunderstorm occurred ahead of a weak cold front that trailed southwest from a low pressure center over southwest Ohio. A closed 500 mb low over east central Missouri provided additional support for the activity.

A waterspout over Kentucky Lake was captured on video by at least one boater. The rope-like funnel took a long, winding path from the cloud base to the water. A small but intense cloud of spray marked the touchdown point. The waterspout moved into Duncan Bay, where it appeared to dissipate near the forested shoreline of the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area.

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

Murray (CEY), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:12 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 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.