2021 Bowling Green tornadoes

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On December 8, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) outlined a slight risk of severe weather across a broad area of the Mississippi Valley. Despite the potential for a higher-end severe threat to materialize, forecasters expressed uncertainty regarding the extent of instability, degree of directional wind shear, and late timing of potential storms. [1] The following day, the SPC noted the increased potential for organized severe thunderstorms in the region extending from southeastern Arkansas northeast into southern Indiana, upgrading that area to an enhanced risk. [2]

As an intense upper-level trough progressed across the High Plains, with robust instability and moisture return across the Mississippi Valley, the SPC expanded the enhanced risk and introduced a moderate risk area from northeastern Arkansas into southern Illinois on the morning of December 10. Forecasters indicated that atmospheric conditions favored the development of nocturnal supercells capable of producing long-tracked, strong tornadoes. [3]

At 3:00 p.m. CST (21:00  UTC), the SPC issued a tornado watch across the highest risk area (encompassing central and eastern Arkansas, west Tennessee, northwestern Mississippi, southeastern Missouri, and southern portions of Illinois and Indiana), the first of eleven issued over subsequent hours over the middle Mississippi Valley. [4] Initial storms developed across central Arkansas around 2:00 p.m. CST (20:00 UTC), with even weaker activity developing over central Missouri a little over 1+12 hours later; additional clusters of thunderstorms developed over southwestern Missouri (forming between Bolivar and Carthage, eventually back-building into northeastern Oklahoma) and central Arkansas (forming southwest of Hot Springs) between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. CST (23:00–23:30 UTC). [5]

One such storm—which formed from the initial mid-afternoon activity near Arkadelphia, Arkansas—matured into a long-lived supercell as it progressed in an unstable, deeply moist, and highly sheared environment; [6] this cell ultimately persisted for more than 550 miles (890 km) over several hours from eastern Arkansas to northeastern Kentucky, producing two large and intense tornadoes along its track, among eleven tornadoes in total. The cell started showing signs of surface-based rotation southwest of Searcy, Arkansas, around 5:30 p.m. CST (23:30 UTC). At 5:51 p.m. CST, the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock issued the first tornado warning associated with the storm for portions of Jackson, Lawrence, White, and Woodruff counties. [7] One of the first tornadoes associated with the storm, an EF0, touched down in western Poinsett County (near Weiner) around 6:40 p.m. CST; about fifteen minutes later, storm spotters reported a large tornado near Greenfield, prompting a PDS tornado warning for portions of Poinsett, Craighead and Mississippi counties (including areas to the south of Jonesboro). [8]

Doppler radar analysis estimated that the supercell maintained a nearly continuous high-end rotational vorticity signature, averaging 94 mph (151 km/h; 82 kn) for approximately four hours and 20 minutes, a rarity among thunderstorms that produce mesocyclonic vorticity exceeding such speeds (averaging 1.5% of all supercells). The only velocities below said average recorded along the storm track were observed between 8:44 and 9:01 p.m. CST [02:44–3:01 UTC] as the storm crossed from Obion County, Tennessee into Hickman County, Kentucky. This time frame coincides with the start of the Western Kentucky tornado, implying the supercell underwent a mesocyclone re-strengthening phase during this period. During this intense tornado's lifetime, peak gate-to-gate velocities of 128 mph (206 km/h; 111 kn) were recorded at 9:58 p.m. CST (04:58 UTC) over northeastern Marshall County, Kentucky. [9] [10] [11]

Elsewhere, multiple lines of intense storms, some featuring embedded supercells, developed across the Mississippi Valley region through the overnight hours and generated other strong and long-lived tornadoes. [12] [13] By the pre-dawn hours of December 11, a decrease in instability led to a gradual weakening of a line of thunderstorms stretching along the associated cold front from eastern Kentucky southward into central Alabama. [14] [15]

Tornado summaries

Rockfield–Bowling Green–Sunnyside–Cedar Spring, Kentucky (1st tornado)

2021 Bowling Green tornadoes
EF3 tornado in Bowling Green 02.jpg
The first tornado at EF3 intensity in Bowling Green, where it would directly kill sixteen people.

The National Weather Service would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families who lost loved ones and experienced tremendous devastation to their properties.

National Weather Service, Louisville, Kentucky

A year after the tornadoes, a candlelight vigil was held for the victims across several points in Bowling Green. [38]

Notes and footnotes

Notes

  1. "Caualties" refers to the combined total of injuries and deaths.
  2. "Caualties" refers to the combined total of injuries and deaths.
  3. Unless stated otherwise, all monetary totals are adjusted in 2021 United States dollars

Footnotes

  1. Aaron Gleason (December 8, 2021). "Dec 8, 2021 0830 UTC Day 3 Severe Thunderstorm Outlook". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 8, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  2. Aaron Gleason (December 9, 2021). "Dec 9, 2021 0700 UTC Day 2 Convective Outlook". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  3. Rich Thompson; Matt Mosier (December 10, 2021). "Dec 10, 2021 1630 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  4. Rich Thompson (December 10, 2021). "Tornado Watch 552". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  5. Brian Squitieri; Jeremy Grams (December 10, 2021). "Mesoscale Discussion 1984". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  6. Brian Squitieri; Jeremy Grams (December 10, 2021). "Mesoscale Discussion 1986". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  7. "Tornado Warning (AR) #1". National Weather Service Little Rock, Arkansas. December 10, 2021. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2021 via Iowa Environmental Mesonet.
  8. "Tornado Warning (AR) #2". National Weather Service Little Rock, Arkansas. December 10, 2021. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2021 via Iowa Environmental Mesonet.
  9. Dylan Moriarty; Bonnie Berkowitz; Zach Levitt (December 11, 2021). "Deadly path: How tornadoes ripped through states". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  10. Jason Samenow (December 11, 2021). "December tornadoes aren't rare, but Friday's outbreak was something totally different". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  11. "The record-breaking tornadoes that swept the United States, by the numbers". The Washington Post LLC. December 13, 2021. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  12. Evan Bentley (December 10, 2021). "Mesoscale Discussion 1988". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  13. Brian Squitieri; Jeremy Grams (December 10, 2021). "Mesoscale Discussion 1998". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  14. Elizabeth Leitman (December 11, 2021). "Mesoscale Discussion 2018". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  15. Elizabeth Leitman (December 11, 2021). "Mesoscale Discussion 2020". Storm Prediction Center. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "ArcGIS Web Application". apps.dat.noaa.gov. Archived from the original on April 23, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  17. Bill Estep (December 11, 2021). "Widespread damage, deaths in Bowling Green, including WKU student set to graduate Saturday". Lexington Herald Leader. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  18. "CORRECTION: Relative of Western Kentucky University student dies in early morning storms". WBKO . Gray Television. December 11, 2021. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  19. "Tornado misses campus; WKU aids in relief efforts". Western Kentucky University. Retrieved 2025-04-05.
  20. Moriarty, Dylan; Berkowitz, Bonnie; Levitt, Zach; Karklis, Laris. "Deadly path: How tornadoes ripped through states". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  21. STORY, JUSTIN (December 12, 2021). "Tornado's local death toll now 12, including children". Bowling Green Daily News. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  22. Member, Molly McCaffrey Newsweek Is A. Trust Project (2021-12-14). "'My Neighborhood Was Devastated By Kentucky's Deadly Tornado'". Newsweek. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
  23. SERGENT, DON (December 12, 2021). "Businesses along bypass begin rebuilding process". Bowling Green Daily News. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  24. "NWS Damage Survey for 12/11/2021 Tornado Event". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Louisville, Kentucky. December 22, 2021. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2021.
  25. "NWS Damage Survey for 12/11/21 Tornado Event". Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Louisville, Kentucky. December 22, 2021. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2021.
  26. "Disaster Maps". City County Planning Commission. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
  27. "Gravity of 2021 tornadoes still felt as Bowling Green plans to expand shelter network". WKU. 2023-11-20. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  28. "An EF3 tornado severely damaged 475 Bowling Green homes in 2021". Spectrum News 1. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  29. "BGMU reports 1,500 customers still without power". WBKO. 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  30. "A Kentucky neighborhood was a haven for refugees. Then the tornado struck" . The Washington Post . December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  31. "'I thank God': Business owner reflects on recovery after 2021 tornadoes". Spectrum News 1. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  32. "Some call this Kentucky town the 'Heart of America.' Now its international community is picking up the pieces after a deadly tornado". CNN. 2021-12-18. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  33. "Coroner: At least 11 tornado deaths reported in Warren County". WEKU. 2021-12-11. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  34. "On a single Kentucky street, the tornado killed 7 children". Associated Press . 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  35. "Kentucky Family of Seven Among Those Killed in Tornado". The New York Times . 2021-12-18. Archived from the original on 2024-11-22. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  36. Rogers, Steve (2021-12-16). "UPDATE: State tornado death toll at 76, missing Bowling Green teen found dead". WTVQ. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  37. "December 10-11, 2021 Tornadoes". National Weather Service . Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  38. Jenkins, Lindsey (2022-12-09). ""Light the Path" vigil to honor lives lost during the December 2021 tornadoes". WBKO. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
Rockfield–Bowling Green–Sunnyside–Cedar Spring, Kentucky (1st tornado)