EF2 tornado, Hardmoney to Fremont, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 3, 2023

Touchdown

11:08 AM CST (17:08 UTC)

Lifted

11:10 AM CST (17:10 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

175 yards (160 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.3 million

County

McCracken County

Touchdown point

36.950, -88.610

Lift-off point

36.970, -88.600

Record number

2303031108-01

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• Several hardwood trees uprooted or snapped in close proximity.
• Several large uprooted trees.

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-2 tornado began at 11:08 AM CST just west of the intersection of Old Mayfield Road and McNeil Road. Traveling north-northeast, the tornado paralleled Old Mayfield Road, doing significant roof, siding, and fascia damage to numerous homes and a few businesses. A few homes had most of their roofing structures completely removed. Several outbuildings were completely destroyed. County emergency management officials assessed the damage and found four homes were destroyed and 68 homes were damaged. Numerous wooden power poles were snapped or tilted by tornadic winds. After crossing Hardmoney Road, the tornado did damage to homes, trees, and outbuildings along Michael Drive West before dissipating around 11:10 AM CST. Dozens of trees were uprooted or snapped, and dozens more suffered major tree limb damage. Additionally, strong straight-line inflow winds of 80 to 90 mph caused tree damage and minor structural damage along Michael Drive East. Peak winds were estimated near 125 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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:25 UTC and running to 17:52 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.

Paducah/Barkley (PAH), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 19 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:07 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.