Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky

Tornadoes in Adair County, Kentucky

13 tornadoes have crossed Adair County since 1950, 48th of the 120 counties in Kentucky with a tornado on record, an average of one every 5.8 years. They have killed 6 people and injured 65. 1 was rated F4 or EF4 and above. Before 1950, Grazulis's record of significant tornadoes has 2 more crossing the county, back to 1933.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The United States rated tornadoes on Ted Fujita’s F scale until 31 January 2007 and on the Enhanced Fujita scale after it. Both run from 0 to 5, and both rate the damage rather than measure the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

F0 / EF040 to 72 mph on the F scale, 65 to 85 mph on the EF scale
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F1 / EF173 to 112 mph on the F scale, 86 to 110 mph on the EF scale
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2 / EF2113 to 157 mph on the F scale, 111 to 135 mph on the EF scale
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.
F3 / EF3158 to 206 mph on the F scale, 136 to 165 mph on the EF scale
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4 / EF4207 to 260 mph on the F scale, 166 to 200 mph on the EF scale
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5 / EF5261 to 318 mph on the F scale, over 200 mph on the EF scale
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.
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.

Now

Tornadoes: 13
Deaths: 6
Injuries: 65
F4 and above: 1
Worst on record: F4, April 27, 1971

The deadliest in Adair County

F4, Green and Adair counties, KentuckyApril 27, 19716 killed, 58 injured

The strongest

Every year with a tornado

The 9 years of the 76 in the record with a tornado in Adair County. Each year links to every tornado in Kentucky that year.

Year	Tornadoes	Deaths	Injuries	Strongest
2018	1			EF1
2015	2			EF1
2010	1			EF0
2006	2			F2
1998	2			F3
1997	2		7	F3
1971	1	6	58	F4
1964	1			F2
1961	1			F2

Every tornado that crossed Adair County

13 tornadoes, newest first.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 5, 2018	10:52 PM CST	EF1	Adair	3.8	150			$750,000
July 13, 2015	5:58 PM CDT	EF0	Adair	1.5	35			$1,000
April 25, 2015	8:29 PM CDT	EF1	Adair	3.8	150			$150,000
June 9, 2010	6:10 PM CDT	EF0	Adair	0.6	40
January 2, 2006	2:57 PM CST	F1	Adair	0.5	100			$70,000
January 2, 2006	2:22 PM CST	F2	Adair	0.6	200			$150,000
May 31, 1998	8:35 PM CDT	F2	Adair	1.0	100			$300,000
April 16, 1998	5:15 PM CDT	F3	Adair	20.0	100			$3.0 million
March 28, 1997	7:45 PM CST	F2	Adair	1.0	200
March 28, 1997	7:15 PM CST	F3	Adair	15.0	500		7	$1.0 million
April 27, 1971	9:30 PM CDT	F4	Green	14.1	100	6	58	under $50
June 15, 1964	5:30 PM GMT-5	F2	Adair	3.6	400			$5,000 to $50,000
June 9, 1961	2:00 PM GMT-5	F2	Adair	1.0	10			$5,000 to $50,000

Adair County before 1950

Before 1950 the record is Thomas P. Grazulis’s list of significant tornadoes: those rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. 2 of them crossed Adair County, killing 38. They are not in the figures above, which are SPC's from 1950.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 9, 1933	8:30 PM CST	F4	Tompkinsville, KY	57.2	800	36	87
May 9, 1933	8:30 PM CST	F2	Columbia, KY	16.2	400	2	12

About the record before 1950

Significant tornadoes only: Grazulis listed tornadoes rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. Most tornadoes are weaker than F2, so the list holds a fraction of the tornadoes that happened.
The early years are thin: A tornado is on record only where somebody saw it and wrote it down. The count rises through the 1800s with settlement and newspapers, not with the weather.
Rated from accounts: Grazulis rated each tornado decades later from newspaper reports, Weather Bureau records and local histories, not from a damage survey.
The tracks are reconstructed: Tornado Archive drew each path through the places Grazulis names, most often as a straight line from the first to the last. A track can miss a town it hit, and a tornado with one named place is a point. The counties are today’s.
A separate record: SPC’s database, from 1950, counts every confirmed tornado of any strength. The two are kept apart on every page and never added together.

Nearby

Warnings in force in Adair County The forecast for Adair County The live radar over Adair County Every county in Kentucky

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. Before 1950: Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 and Significant Tornadoes 1880-1989, as digitized by Tornado Archive (Maas and others, 2024). Public domain. Counties assigned by this site from today’s NWS county lines.