EF1 tornado, Mt Aerial to Amos, Kentucky, June 21, 2019

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

June 21, 2019

Touchdown

7:39 PM CDT (00:39 UTC)

Lifted

7:43 PM CDT (00:43 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.6 miles (7.4 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Allen County

Touchdown point

36.773, -86.389

Lift-off point

36.745, -86.316

Record number

1906211839-01

55 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 95 mph.

• tornado began on west side I 65 not far from exit 6
• May be a tornado, not sure yet
• Tree damage is from NE to SE. There may be several spin up tornadoes in area.
• trees going from 350 to 120.

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

A large Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) formed over Missouri early in the day. By evening, a line of severe storms had made its way into Kentucky and sounthern Indiana. This line continued south and southeast through Kentucky causing widespread damage and a loss of life. In the end, 3 tornadoes were confirmed with many other reports of downed trees, severe hail, property damage, and power outages.

The National Weather Service in conjunction with Allen County EMA conducted a storm survey across the western half of Allen County. There was significant straight line wind damage across much of the county facing an easterly and southeasterly direction. Interspersed with the straight line wind damage was at least one tornado across western Allen County north of and paralleling KY 585.||The tornado touched down near the Horseshoe Ford Road and Horseshoe Bend Road intersection. There were numerous large hardwood trees split, twisted, and uprooted facing from northerly to southeasterly. Horseshoe Bend Road was closed due to trees down across the road and from flooding. Winds in this area were estimated to be between 90 and 95 mph. Further east along Mayhew Road a large, well-built barn|was uplifted and removed from its foundation with several cedar and maple trees twisted and snapped. Across a farmer's field, corn was flattened and twisted in multiple directions. Large, heavy fuel tanks were rolled in two different directions on Mayhew Road. Several barns and outbuilding had roof damage as well.||At the Mayhew and Pope Road intersection there was extensive softwood and hardwood tree damage, especially around the Harmony|Missionary Baptist Church at 5226 Pope Road. Residents said there was a major pressure change with the tornado.||There were indications there may have been more than one tornado as tree positions would go from a tornadic circulation of northeasterly to southeasterly direction and then to all straight line wind damage in an easterly wind direction, then back to a tornadic circulation in multiple directions. Radar supports this ground analysis with mesovortices along the leading edge of the potent squall line. The width of the individual circulations varied between 75 and 125 yards with widespread straight line wind damage all around. Most of the wind damage was between 85 and 95 mph.||More tree and power line damage was along KY 585 near Shores Road. The tornado dissipated halfway between the intersection of KY 585 and Shores Road and the intersection of Shirk Road and Grider Drive.||The survey crew traveled all along southern Allen County south of Scottsville and found straight line winds facing east and southeasterly directions.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm damage survey across southeast Allen County to assess damage from the storms on Friday Evening, June 21. There was a significant amount of straight line wind damage across southern Allen County. Most of this damage had wind speeds between 60-65 mph all facing east southeast direction. There were two significant areas of straight line wind damage. There was a barn north of Amos on Highway 99. The second was two large barns just north of Hayesville, TN. ||Interspersed among the straight line wind damage was a tornado which first touched down a half mile east of Amos. A family farm had numerous trees twisted, snapped, and uprooted. Several barns sustained severe structural damage to the roofs. A dozen or so portions of two by fours were impaled into the ground in multiple directions. ||Further southeast on Highland Church Road numerous trees were uprooted and snapped with trees facing from the north northeast to the southeast direction. There was clear evidence that the tornado went to the Tennessee state line in Macon County as we could see trees snapped and uprooted on the state line which correlates well with the NWS Nashville storm survey across the Macon County line. ||At 2592 Highland Church Road (Highland General Baptist Church) there was significant brick damage on the west, south, and east sides of the church due to open vents. The survey crew zig zagged across roads south of Scottsville to Highway 31 but only found sporadic straight line tree and barn damage all facing a southeasterly direction. ||The very last concentrated area of damage the team found was at 444 Old Buck Creek Road were there was numerous softwood tree damage at the residence with power poles down across the road.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:38 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 02:19 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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 Nashville radar (KOHX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:40 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 2019 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.