EF1 tornado, Smith Mills, Kentucky, March 3, 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

March 3, 2023

Touchdown

12:17 PM CST (18:17 UTC)

Lifted

12:19 PM CST (18:19 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Henderson County

Touchdown point

37.770, -87.780

Lift-off point

37.800, -87.770

Record number

2303031217-01

22 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 95 mph.

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

A strong storm system led to significant impacts. Heavy rainfall amounts of 3 to 4.5 inches produced areas of flash flooding, with numerous road closures. The heavy rain drove the Ohio River above flood stage at Uniontown. Very strong wind gusts occurred, ranging between 50 and about 70 mph. These were associated with both thunderstorms and gradient winds afterwards. The line of storms moved through during the late morning and early afternoon, and then very strong gradient winds continued for several hours afterwards through the afternoon. An indirect fatality occurred the following day during cleanup operations. A 69-year-old man in Calloway County was killed when a large branch landed on him while he was cutting up the tree. The magnitude and duration of this wind produced significant damage to trees, power lines, and other outdoor property such as fences. Soggy ground due to the excessive rainfall likely contributed to some trees being more susceptible to being blown over. Numerous power outages occurred, some lasting into the following day. Six tornadoes occurred along the line of thunderstorms across western Kentucky. The strongest was rated EF-2 just south of Paducah. Finally, the lowest barometric pressure of all-time was observed in Paducah (977.7 mb). The center of the record strong low pressure system tracked from the bootheel of extreme southeast Missouri northeast right along the Ohio River. Very strong southwest winds occurred on the back side of the low pressure system in the afternoon. Gusts were up to around 60 mph. A semi was blown over on Interstate 24 in Trigg County.

An EF-1 tornado passed just to the west of the Smith Mills community in Henderson County. The tornado developed along JJ Utley Road. Traveling north-northeast along Greenlick Baptist Church Road, the tornado destroyed a farm outbuilding. The tornado crossed Kentucky Highway 359 just south of Smith Mills where several trees suffered extensive large limb damage. Continuing north-northeast, the tornado passed through a cemetery along Grandpa Jones Road where several large trees were snapped. The tornado diminished as it reached Kentucky Highway 136 just west of Smith Mills. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:12 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:35 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:17 UTC and running to 19:10 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 16:11 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:17 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

21 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.