EF1 tornado, Wingo to Wiswell, Kentucky, December 6, 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 6, 2021

Touchdown

3:34 AM CST (09:34 UTC)

Lifted

3:43 AM CST (09:43 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

9.6 miles (15.4 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$229,000

Counties

Graves and Calloway counties

Touchdown point

36.590, -88.530

Lift-off point

36.570, -88.360

Record number

2112060334-01

17 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 100 mph.

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

A strong cold front moved through the region, preceded by numerous thunderstorms during the evening hours on December 5th and into the early morning on the 6th. Large hail, a few tornadoes, and an isolated damaging wind event accompanied the strongest storms. There were four tornadoes that touched down in the Tennessee border counties of western Kentucky. A loose clustering of storms and embedded supercells caused most of the severe weather in the evening. Overnight, the severe weather was mostly in the form of a convective line with embedded mesoscale circulations. The severe storm environment was characterized by weak instability but very strong wind shear.

This weak tornado tracked across rural farm country between Wingo and Cuba. Mainly trees and large tree branches were down. There was damage to a few barns and a chicken house. Peak winds were estimated near 85 mph.

Along the Graves County portion of the path, many large tree branches were down. The short portion of the path in Graves County was rated EF-0. The tornado then proceeded into Calloway County.

The tornado continued into Calloway County from Graves County. Trees were snapped or uprooted. Near the end of the damage track, a tree landed on a house. Many large tree branches were down. Three large pole barns were destroyed, and structural damage occurred to nearby houses, including roof damage. Vehicles were damaged. The tornado track ended only a few miles southwest of Murray. Peak winds in the Calloway County portion of the tornado were estimated near 100 mph.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:28 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:00 UTC and running to 10:00 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 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.

Murray (CEY), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:33 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

14 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.