That deadly tornado blamed for killing at least 77 in Kentucky traveled 165.7 miles, the weather service says
The tornado investigations continue. Verifying weather records, important for research, is a laborious process. It took five years to verify Philly's snow record.
A “preliminary total” of 41 tornadoes touched down in seven states in last week’s devastating outbreak, including the deadliest one that tore through southwestern Kentucky Friday night, the National Weather Service said.
From 8:47 p.m. to 11:49 p.m. it traveled 165.7 miles, 128 of those in Kentucky, the agency said Friday after several days of forensic investigations, That ranks among the top 10 longest paths in available records, according to data assembled by the Storm Prediction Center, in Normal, Okla.
It was rated an EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with peak winds of 190 mph and a mile-wide path that leveled buildings in Mayfield, including a candle factory that is the subject of a suit on behalf of workers who allege they were ordered to stay on the job on Friday, the night the tornado hit.
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While at least three 200-plus mile tracks have been reported in the past elsewhere, this one set a Kentucky record for the longest tornado path by about 85 miles. The previous Kentucky record was 79.4 miles, set on April 3, 1974.
As of Friday, 77 were confirmed dead in the state, with one person still missing, said Gov. Andy Beshea.
A second tornado, which touched down in Tennessee and also crossed the Kentucky state line, traveled 122.7 miles, and was rated an EF-3, with winds of 160 mph and a 1,000-foot-wide track, said Chris Franks of the weather service’s Central Regional Operations Center.
The investigation process has been laborious, as is often the case in documenting weather records.it took five years to verify Philadelphia’s 1996 record snowfall — and tornadoes are especially problematic since wind speeds have to be inferred from damages.
“We have multiple teams out,” Stephanie Sipprell, a meteorologist with the central regional office, said in an interview.
True rarities
What makes these tornadoes so extraordinary is the fact that they occurred in December, hardly the peak of severe-storm season, and at nighttime, rather than late in the day when storms can mine solar energy.
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And the path lengths place them in a rarefied atmosphere. On average, according to the government’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., tornadoes travel about 3.5 miles.
Franks said they were so long-lived because they formed in a “Goldilocks zone” where conditions were perfect for the formation of tornadoes, plus there weren’t “too many storms all competing for the same air mass.”
Why precision matters
Measuring the precise paths is important for scientific purposes, said Sipprell, a meteorologist at the regional operations center, so every tenth of a mile counts. “We’re making sure we’re getting the start and ending point correctly.”
The exact tracks will be checked against what the radar, a critical forecasting tool, was showing — what the radar displayed when a tornado was on the ground, compared with when it was in the air, she said.
“It helps us with our training. It also helps out the research community.”
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Here are the 10 longest tornado tracks on record, in miles:
234.7, March 22, 1953*
217.8, April 18, 1969
202.5, March 3, 1966
202.1, Feb. 21, 1971
176.4, May 24, 1965
170.5, April 29, 1970
169.7, Sept. 25, 1973
168.5, Jan. 12, 1975
162, May 10, 1953
160, Nov. 23, 1992
*Might have been more than one tornado.
Source: Storm Prediction Center