NWS releases detailed report on Wednesday severe weather

The official storm survey report from Wednesday morning’s severe weather is now available and shows two tornadoes and three microbursts did damage in Christian County.

The highest winds were associated with an EF2 tornado packing 120 mph winds that touched down three miles southwest of Herndon and stayed on the ground for about two miles. The twister had an average width of 150 yards and its initial impact was felt around 1:43am Wednesday.

Christian County native and Warning Meteorologist Rick Shanklin said some of the damage to homes in the KY 117 area was done by the tornado.

A microburst with straight line winds of 100 mph impacted about 10 miles from four miles south of Herndon to 10 miles southeast of Hopkinsville around the same time. That was the wind that snapped about ten power poles along US 41A.

A second and third microburst were also recorded near Herndon and near the Pembroke Road area. Straight line winds with those systems were 95 and 105 mph, respectively.

The other tornado was an EF1 packing winds of 105 miles per hour. It was on the ground for six and a half miles and was 175 yards wide. It started eight miles south of Hopkinsville and crossed Fort Campbell Boulevard before it went back into the clouds in the Pembroke Road area.

Shanklin says tornadoes accompanied by a microburst of straight line winds isn’t all that uncommon.


The significant damage caused by the straight-line winds locally is evidence that all severe weather warnings should be taken seriously, according to Shanklin.  


Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted and power poles were snapped on Pembroke Road and Long Pond Road in the EF1 tornado. Brent Gilkey with Pennyrile Electric said power had been restored to all customers by about 8pm last night.

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02/01/2013/am