EF1 tornado, Cumberland City to Cabell, Kentucky, February 28, 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

February 28, 2021

Touchdown

8:18 PM CST (02:18 UTC)

Lifted

8:23 PM CST (02:23 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.7 miles (5.9 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

Counties

Clinton and Wayne counties

Touchdown point

36.792, -85.087

Lift-off point

36.794, -85.020

Record number

2102282018-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JKL and NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Debris from two large barns and our buildings thrown 400 yards down wind to East Northeast
• This was in along brand new well built barn and moved 30 yards and turned around 180°
• Two by tens Impaled in ground

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

A stalled frontal boundary brought waves of heavy rainfall to central Kentucky from February 26 through February 28. This caused record rainfall, isolated severe winds, and even a tornado. As a result, Bowling Green set a February daily rainfall record with 5.11 on the 28th. The severe winds brought down some trees and a power pole, but the most property damage came from a brief EF1 tornado.

In the midst of a widespread heavy rainfall event, a short-lived tornado produced damage in portions of Clinton and Wayne Counties in southern Kentucky. ||Thunderstorms were embedded in the heavier rainfall throughout the day and evening. A line of storms developed across south-central Kentucky, and began to bow out as it moved eastward across Clinton County. The bow then showed signs of breaking, which results in heightened rotational potential. Damage was then reported in both Clinton and Wayne Counties by local Emergency Management. This prompted the Louisville office to conduct a storm survey. ||From this survey, it was concluded that a short-lived EF1 tornado tracked across portions of Clinton County (Louisville NWS County Warning Area) and then briefly into Wayne County, before dissipating. Debris from Clinton County was also carried over into Wayne County.

The National Weather Service in conjunction with Clinton County Emergency Management conducted the storm damage assessment survey. ||The initial tornado touchdown was on the western edge of Cumberland City, approximately 5 miles northeast of Albany. There were several snapped trees along with roof damage at several homes, before more extensive structural damage occurred at 5250 Hwy 558.||Several large barns were destroyed or had at least 70% of their walls blown out. A brand new (1 month old) 64' x 56' barn was totally destroyed. The debris from the barn was thrown over a quarter of a mile down wind to the northeast. Another 60' x 43' barn that had recently been remodeled and upgraded had three walls blown out. A Kubota UTV weighing 2500 pounds was moved 30 yards and rotated 180 degrees. There was also extensive snapping and uprooting of trees. Winds were estimated to be 110 mph.||Farther to the northeast, a large 50' x 60' barn was destroyed, and debris went at least a half of a mile down wind. A mobile home along Hwy 829 was lifted off its foundation, and there were several trees uprooted and snapped.||The tornado crossed 829 and then crossed 1009 with extensive tree damage along both sides of the road. A large barn on 1009 had two walls blown out with debris thrown over a half of a mile downwind into Wayne county.||The tornado continued into far western portions of Wayne county.||Clinton County Emergency Management Director Lucas Abner and Dr. Bill Fountain, the Extension Specialist from the University of Kentucky Extension helped with the survey.

The tornado narrowed as it crossed from Clinton County (Louisville, KY County Warning Area) into Wayne County, with some straight line wind damage noted. The winds|generally were from the west to southwest surrounding the tornado.|The straight line winds of 65 to 75 mph damaged 2 barns.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:11 UTC and running to 02:51 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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 Nashville radar (KOHX), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:20 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 2021 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.