EF0 tornado, South Zion to Pinchem, Kentucky, June 21, 2019

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

June 21, 2019

Touchdown

6:57 PM CDT (23:57 UTC)

Lifted

7:01 PM CDT (00:01 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Todd County

Touchdown point

36.698, -87.262

Lift-off point

36.667, -87.228

Record number

1906211757-01

46 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.

• strong convergence - beginning point

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.

The tornado started along Hammacksville Road south of Trenton. It tracked through cornfields, with strong convergence noted within the downed corn. It also uprooted and broke several large limbs off of some trees. There is drone footage of the tornado track and eyewitness reports/pictures of the tornado. Maximum winds were estimated near 85 mph.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:56 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:23 UTC and running to 00:30 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 Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 7 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:58 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.