EF1 tornado, Yatesville to Mineral Spgs, Kentucky, August 7, 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 7, 2023

Touchdown

2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)

Lifted

2:10 PM CDT (19:10 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.2 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$23,000

Counties

Lawrence and Wayne counties

Touchdown point

38.133, -82.678

Lift-off point

38.136, -82.563

Record number

2308071300-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Utility building also destroyed with debris scattered in a northerly direction.
• Significant tree damage noted on this hillside visible from road.
• Tree damage visible from road.
• Semi trailers and tree tops at bottom of drone acquired image were blown in a southeasterly direction. A construction trailer and trees near the top of the image next to the white building were blown in a north/northeasterly direction.

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

Numerous showers and thunderstorms were observed in northeast Kentucky on the afternoon of August 7th. This came as the result of an encroaching cold front and preceding unstable conditions. Dew points rose into the low to upper 60s that afternoon, allowing for developing storms to thrive as they crossed through Kentucky. ||While most of the storms imposed damaging wind gusts and resulting downed trees, one storm in particular spawned an EF1 tornado. NWS Charleston investigated the resulting damaging the next day and determined that the tornado initially touched down east of Yatesville Lake and continued onward to the Kentucky and West Virginia line. On the Kentucky side, this tornado caused roughly a 400 yard wide swath of extensive tree damage in the Louisa area, along with two overturned semi trailers.

Numerous showers and thunderstorms were observed in West Virginia on the afternoon of August 7th. Storms developed as a result of hot and humid conditions in advance of a cold front, then activity continued as the front crossed the region. Gusty winds within storms downed numerous trees and power lines, with a few instances of hail up to one and a half inch in size. Heavy rainfall led to flash flooding around Parkersburg and Lubeck in Wood County, and the towns of Lumberport and Bridgeport in Harrison County.||One storm spawned an EF1 tornado in the western parts of the state. The tornado initially touched down east of Yatesville Lake in Kentucky, then crossed into Wayne County in West Virginia. On the West Virginia side of the tornado path, an area of tree damage was noted and a house was slightly damaged at the intersection of Route 52 and Fort Gay Road. Some additional tree damage was observed further to the east up Fort Gay Road, which was estimated to be the end of the track.

An EF1 tornado touched down just east of Yatesville Lake, uprooting or snapping several large trees on Aspen Drive and on Birch Road. Three houses were damaged by fallen trees on Birch Road with one home suffering extensive damage to the attached garage as a large tree fell on it. The tornado then tracked eastward, skipping along an almost six and a half mile track, crossing US 23 and the Big Sandy River just north of Louisa before continuing into West Virginia. A roughly 400 yard wide swath of rather extensive tree damage occurred on the west side of the Big Sandy River near a logging yard and two semi trailers were overturned at that location.

An EF1 tornado briefly lifted as it crossed over from Lawrence County, Kentucky and touched back down in Wayne County on the afternoon of August 7th. Once it touched back down in West Virginia, an area of tree damage was noted and a house was slightly damaged at the intersection of Route 52 and Fort Gay Road. Some additional tree damage was observed further to the east up Fort Gay Road, which was estimated to be the end of the track.

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 tornado watch, issued at 14:58 UTC and running to 20:57 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:40 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.

Huntington/Tri Stat (HTS), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:00 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

19 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.