EF1 tornado, Gilbertsville Arpt to Gilbertsville, 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

5:42 PM CDT (22:42 UTC)

Lifted

5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Marshall County

Touchdown point

36.990, -88.297

Lift-off point

36.992, -88.283

Record number

1906211642-01

24 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 110 mph.

• 2 piers broken loose. other piers were damaged with partial roof loss. Numerous trees snapped and uprooted on shore
• trees snapped and uprooted
• Several very large trees with snapped trunks as well.

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

A severe weather outbreak occurred during the afternoon and early evening hours. An organized line of severe thunderstorms formed over the central Plains states during the night of the 20th. This bowing line of storms progressed southeast across the St. Louis area during the midday hours, then down across the lower Ohio Valley and southeast Missouri during the afternoon. Widespread wind damage was reported in parts of western Kentucky, along with several weak to moderately strong tornadoes. Very large hail was reported in a few locations. The atmosphere ahead of the storms became strongly unstable, with surface-based capes exceeding 4,000. Given the strong buoyancy, wind profiles were sufficiently strong for widespread severe weather. Deep-layer (0-6 km) wind shear values were no higher than about 30 knots, and 0-1 km shear was about 20 knots. Even though the region was under a broad 500 mb ridge, a moderately strong low-level feed of very moist and unstable air fueled the intense storms as they propagated southeastward.

A 50-yard wide tornado with peak winds near 110 mph snapped and uprooted trees. The tornado appeared to touch down along the edge of Kentucky Dam Village property near Golf Course Maintenance Drive. It crossed Highway 641 and created a clear path from near 641 to the marina. At the marina, two piers (which were connected to other piers as an extension) broke loose and were pushed out into the bay, dragging concrete block tie downs along the floor of the bay. These piers sustained major damage to roofs and connections between the piers. The piers which were connected to the shore were damaged, not only at the connection point between piers, but also at the connection to the shore. Electrical systems were destroyed along with gang planks between the shore and piers. There were four piers connected to the shore. The two piers that were damaged were the inside two piers, with the outside piers sustaining minor damage.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:23 UTC and running to 23:39 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.

Mayfield (M25), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:41 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 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.