EF1 tornado, Hillside to Morgan, Kentucky, December 10, 2021

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

December 10, 2021

Touchdown

8:32 PM CST (02:32 UTC)

Lifted

8:37 PM CST (02:37 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Muhlenberg County

Touchdown point

37.257, -87.184

Lift-off point

37.276, -87.141

Record number

2112102032-01

156 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK and NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 190 mph.

• Tree fell on house causing damage to it. Shingle damage to a house a couple houses up.
• Large garage completely destroyed.
• Mobile home destroyed. Trees snapped
• One brick home collapsed, another swept off. Car in garage thrown across road. 1 injured.

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

On the evening of Friday, December 10, 2021, a potent storm system moving across the central United States resulted in significant long-track tornadoes. A violent EF-4 tornado began in far northwest Tennessee, and moved across western Kentucky, resulting in dozens of lost lives and a swath of destruction. The tornado was on the ground for 128 miles within the NWS Paducah forecast area, and the total path length was about 165 miles from Obion County, TN to Breckinridge County, KY. Another long-track EF-3 tornado started in Dyer County, TN, and traveled about 125 miles through northwest Tennessee and into Christian and Todd Counties in western Kentucky. A strong upper-level trough over the western Plains induced a deepening surface low that tracked northeast across the Iowa/Illinois border. A very strong and deep southwest wind flow brought moist and unstable air into the Tennessee and lower Ohio Valleys. Record high temperatures were recorded, including a high of 73 at Paducah. The combination of very strong winds aloft, unseasonably warm conditions, and a strong low pressure system were ideal for this tornado outbreak.

This relatively weak and short-lived tornado occurred prior to the much larger and more powerful EF-4 tornado in northern parts of the county. The known damage path began about four miles north-northwest of Greenville along the Western Kentucky Parkway, starting at the Wendell Ford Regional Training Center grounds. Numerous trees and large branches were broken near the parkway. The tornado continued as far as the southwest city limit of Central City. Near the southwest city limit, a metal commercial structure suffered extensive roof loss and some damage to walls. Nearby, a house roof was damaged and windows were blown out. A nearby church received minor structural damage. A road sign along the Western Kentucky Parkway was blown about a tenth of a mile. Estimated peak wind speeds were near 95 mph.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:19 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:21 UTC and running to 06:10 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 00:47 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), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:32 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 2021 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

32 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.