EF2 tornado, Horse Cave to Summersville, Kentucky, December 11, 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 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

December 11, 2021

Touchdown

1:52 AM CST (07:52 UTC)

Lifted

2:15 AM CST (08:15 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

23.8 miles (38.3 km)

Path width

528 yards (483 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Counties

Hart and Green counties

Touchdown point

37.222, -85.927

Lift-off point

37.342, -85.521

Record number

2112110152-01

270 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 145 mph.

• Entire second story removed of brick built home
• Entire second story removed
• Can see convergence pattern in trees
• Two large barns in distance destoyed

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

Strong southern winds brought warm temperatures and plenty of moisture into an environment of strong wind shear ahead of an advancing cold front. This resulted in unusually warm temperatures for a December day and the ingredients to produce a historic tornado outbreak and flash flooding. This included multiple long track tornadoes. Central Kentucky saw 18 tornadoes that injured 96 and killed 18. An additional death occurred in a flash flood.

This tornado formed approximately 2.3 miles east of Rocky Hill near Goldenrod Lane and tracked northeast for approximately 1.1 miles before crossing into western Barren County. The tornado continued approximately 9 miles into Barren County before crossing into southern Hart County. The tornado traveled approximately 7 more miles into Hart County before dissipating near Red Buck Estes Road at approximately 0154 CST. In Hart County, the tornado continued along US 31W through downtown Horse Cave. Here the damage was rated EF1 with small roof damage, large limbs being snapped, and walls blown out of some older tobacco warehouses. Once reaching Dawson Knob the tornado weakened and likely converged with the supercell moving into Hardyville. Due to the knob terrain in this area, there are spots of weaker damage found, however on the down-sloping side, the tornado strengthened rapidly. This pattern was found twice in this damage path.

This tornado formed approximately 1.6 miles west southwest of Rowletts near L and N Turnpike Road and tracked northeast for approximately 14.2 miles before crossing into western Green County. The tornado continued approximately 9.7 miles into Green County before dissipating at 0215 CST. In Hart County, the same supercell which came from Bowling Green extended another tornado to the ground on the down-sloping side of Fisher Ridge, just east of I-65 on Highway 335. Here, many barns collapsed on tobacco farms and hardwood trees were snapped. The tornado then continued through Rowletts where snapped/uprooted large trees and roof damage was found at the Caveland Country Club. The tornado then encountered terrain on Dawson Knob where little damage was found, however the tornado quickly intensified on the down-sloping side. The tornado continued down Shady Lane Church Rd. where it destroyed many homes, took roofs off structures and homes, collapsed well-built barns, destroyed an Amish schoolhouse, snapped/uprooted many trees, downed many powerlines, and took the lives of many farm animals. The tornado weakened to the northeast of Hardyville where damage was determined to be EF1 and EF0 to the Green County border.

This tornado formed approximately 1.6 miles west southwest of Rowletts near L and N Turnpike Road and tracked northeast for approximately 14.2 miles before exiting Hart County and into western Green County. In Green County, tree and limited building damage was determined to be EF1 and EF0 from the Hart County line through Summersville. The tornado lifted northeast of Summersville near Summersville Road.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:27 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:29 UTC and running to 11:40 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:48 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 Louisville radar (KLVX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:53 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

37 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.