EF1 tornado, Crofton to Fruit Hill, Kentucky, March 2, 2020

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

March 2, 2020

Touchdown

8:00 PM CST (02:00 UTC)

Lifted

8:06 PM CST (02:06 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.9 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Christian County

Touchdown point

37.033, -87.501

Lift-off point

37.028, -87.401

Record number

2003022000-01

16 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 94 mph.

• Empty grain bin lofted a couple hundred feet
• farm grain structure severely damaged
• Several large trees uprooted
• Portable metal garage lofted a couple hundred yards to the SSW.

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

Severe thunderstorms moved across the region on the evening of March 2. A long-track supercell thunderstorm crossed the Mississippi River from the Cairo, IL area. This storm proceeded east across Paducah and the Kentucky Lake region, where it produced a microburst and accumulating large hail. As the storm crossed the Pennyrile region, it produced an EF-1 tornado just south of Crofton, KY, in Christian County. Later on in the evening and overnight, disorganized clusters of thunderstorms produced a few isolated severe weather reports. This outbreak of storms occurred in a strong west-southwest flow ahead of a 500 mb shortwave over the Plains states. A southwest wind flow up to 30 knot at 850 mb provided some moisture for the storms. At the surface, a low pressure center moved east-northeast from the Ozarks to the lower Ohio Valley. A frontal boundary extending east-northeast from the low provided a focus for the storms.

A National Weather Service damage survey was conducted along the path of this tornado. At least four farm structures were damaged or destroyed, along with a portable garage and a regular constructed garage. Several homes lost siding or shingles. A couple dozen trees were uprooted. One home had six windows shattered or blown out. A cluster of damage survey points was in an area of structures along U.S. Highway 41 just south of Crofton. The tornado was witnessed by a meteorologist. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph.

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

40 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:20 UTC, 40 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:21 UTC and running to 07:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:02 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), 34 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), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:58 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 2020 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.