Storm survey teams from the National Weather Service are in Kentucky to provide more detail about a series of tornadoes that struck nearly a dozen cities and communities Friday night and Saturday morning and left an astonishing path of damage.
Surveys began in Cayce in Fulton County where the tornado entered western Kentucky Friday night. Although not receiving the publicity as other cities that were affected, damage to Cayce is severe by what the National Weather Service is calling at minimum an EF-3 tornado with winds in excess of 158 miles per hour.
An EF-3 tornado on the Fujita Scale causes severe damage with roofs and some walls torn from well-constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forested areas uprooted, and heavy cars lifted and thrown.
The survey from Cayce to Mayfield began Sunday as did a survey from Dawson Springs to Breman that also caused damage from a minimum EF-3 tornado.
Storm surveys from Mayfield to Dawson Springs will begin Monday. In addition, a storm survey team from the National Weather Service in Louisville said as many as three EF-3 tornadoes struck Bowling Green early Saturday.
Storm surveys in Stewart County, Tennessee, Fort Campbell, southern Christian County, and southern Todd County will be conducted by the National Weather Service Office in Nashville.
Some weather experts are predicting the tornado that struck Cayce and Mayfield in the EF-4 range with winds between 207 and 260 miles per hour that produces devastating damage such as well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown some distance; cars thrown; and large missiles generated.
The last EF-4 tornado recorded in western Kentucky was in 2005 when 40 people were injured and 151 homes damaged or destroyed near Earlington and south of Madisonville. Lyon, Graves, and Caldwell counties have not had a recorded EF-4 tornado since at least 1950.
According to the National Weather Service, there have only been 34 EF-4 or F4 tornados in Kentucky dating back to 1878. The only EF-5 tornado in the state’s history occurred as part of a three-state outbreak on April 3, 1974, that destroyed downtown Brandenburg in Meade County and killed 28 people.
An EF-5 tornado produces winds between 260 and 318 miles per hour and causes incredible damage such as strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances; auto-sized missiles airborne for several hundred feet or more; and trees debarked.
