EF2 tornado, Wells Store to Dayville, Kentucky, March 28, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 28, 2020

Touchdown

8:18 PM CDT (01:18 UTC)

Lifted

8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.1 km)

Path width

575 yards (526 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$2.0 million

Counties

Henderson and Warrick counties

Touchdown point

37.937, -87.418

Lift-off point

37.964, -87.332

Record number

2003281918-01

127 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• Three consecutive poles snapped.
• Wood and tin barn completely destroyed with debris scattered.
• Wal on top floor blown away
• House destroyed by uprooted tree

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

Numerous thunderstorms formed ahead of a cold front during the late afternoon. Some supercells and bowing line segments were embedded within the large area of convection through the evening hours. A couple of tornadoes occurred in northwest Kentucky. The bowing line segments produced isolated wind damage. The atmosphere was only marginally unstable, with surface-based capes around 1000. Strong wind shear was favorable for the organized storm structures, including a few supercells.

Numerous thunderstorms formed ahead of a cold front during the late afternoon, then continued into the evening. Some supercells and bowing line segments were embedded within the large area of convection through the evening hours. A significant tornado occurred in southwest Indiana, along with isolated damaging winds. The atmosphere was only marginally unstable, with surface-based capes around 1000. Strong wind shear was favorable for the organized storm structures, including a few supercells.

The tornado began on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, where it brought down several trees in the flooded bottomlands. The tornado spent the vast majority of its time in the Indiana county of Warrick, where it strengthened to EF-2 intensity at Newburgh.

The tornado crossed the Ohio River from Henderson County, Kentucky into Newburgh. Five homes lost at least portions of their roof, and at least one home lost some of its second story walls. Dozens of other homes received moderate to major damage, including several with fallen trees causing major damage. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. Dozens of small buildings, garages, and other small structures were damaged. Many power lines were either blown down or brought down by fallen trees. At least two people were treated and released from area hospitals. The tornado was photographed near the beginning of its track along the Ohio River. Peak winds were estimated near 125 mph.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:58 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:35 UTC and running to 03:25 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 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.

Evansville (EVV), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:20 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

20 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.