EF1 tornado, Hickman, Kentucky, August 12, 2023

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

August 12, 2023

Touchdown

8:56 AM CDT (13:56 UTC)

Lifted

8:58 AM CDT (13:58 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.0 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

County

Fulton County

Touchdown point

36.568, -89.197

Lift-off point

36.563, -89.175

Record number

2308120756-01

30 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 107 mph.

• Large tree uprooted and landed on a car damaging front bumper.
• Multiple smaller trees pulled down, falling on power line.
• Tree uprooted, others snapped
• Large section of tree down and other limbs.

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

Clusters of strong thunderstorms over southeast Missouri and northwest Tennessee merged into a complex of severe thunderstorms over southwest Kentucky. Widespread damaging winds and a couple of isolated tornadoes accompanied the storms along the Tennessee border from Fulton and Hickman Counties eastward into south Graves County. Rainfall amounts ranging from 1 to 3 inches occurred across portions of western Kentucky. This included Fulton, Hickman, Graves, and Calloway counties. Much of this rain fell within 30 minutes to 1 hour. The storms weakened as they moved east across the Murray area, where heavy rain and street flooding was the main impact. The storms fed on a southwest wind flow of strongly unstable air. The most unstable air was slightly elevated, characterized by most-unstable layer capes around 2500 j/kg. Rather strong westerly mid-level winds around 40 knots provided sufficient vertical shear for this organized severe weather episode. The storms occurred ahead of a cold front that trailed southwest across the Ozarks from a low pressure center over the Great Lakes region. A subtle 500 mb shortwave in the west-northwest flow aloft aided the storms.

This EF-1 tornado began near the center of Hickman, in the Terrace Drive and Sunset Street area. Damage to trees and power lines occurred in this neighborhood. This tornado tracked to the east-southeast, with more tree damage on Bayou Street and Johnson Lane. A large tree fell onto a home on Myron Cory Drive. The tornado crossed Kentucky 125 and proceeded to 7th Street, where the most significant cluster of damage occurred with several trees uprooted, portions of a few trees snapped, and power line damage. One of the trees fell onto a car. The storm was at its peak width around Kentucky 125 and 7th Street. Additional damage to trees occurred on Nelson Street and Harrison Street. The damage path ended at this point, with the tornado lifting after moving into open areas east of Nelson Street. Peak winds were estimated near 105 mph.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 12:48 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.

Everett-Stewart (UCY), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:57 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 2023 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

15 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.