The March 2, 2012, Tornado Outbreak: A Case Study 

I'm a contractor for a living and the number of barns with holes I could stick my fist through was unreal, around the Campton KY area. Was actually working in Prestonsburg at the time, had to drive through salyersville to get to our job sites. Wasn't into weather at all at the time, seeing the damage in salyersville got me addicted to severe weather again!

This outbreak and the November 17, 2013 tornado outbreak have always peaked my interest. Something about high risk days further North during traditionally colder months just fascinates me. Great video once again!

Great work Trey. I feel like this event got swept under the rug quite a bit, which is weird, because there were many parts that made this so unique compared to other outbreaks in the past (high cloud bases, low precipitation storm modes, early in the year) I wasn’t even aware that there was a high risk associated with it either.

I look forward to these case studies so much! You deserve way more views/subs. As far as I know you are the only channel that does deep dives into the meterology of tornado events, and I really think that the content you make sets you apart from other channels that don't talk about the meterology

Thanks a lot man! I was excited for this case study to come out. I was too young to remember this outbreak but it happened in my home state. Great Video!

Appreciate these storm system case studies. It helps a layman like myself understand some of the nuances. Especially how these strong storms can persist for some time after exiting favorable environments.

Was a 7th grader at Henryville at the time, the decision to release us early that day saved a lot of lives.

I was hoping you would do this one. Great job as always.

Awesome stuff Trey, as always! Those hodos though 😳

I remember driving home from EKU at Richmond to Louisville around the initiation of the Henryville cells and it was terrifyingly beautiful to see tornado warned supers just stacked up north east to south west just marching across the state. For a second i wasn’t sure if the Henryville cell was going to track through Louisville. My dad recalls the April 3rd 1974 Super Outbreak F4 that hit the city, he took shelter in a service station pit not more than a half mile from the path. Parents windows were blown out it was that close. Thinking back on March 2nd I distinctly recall, unfortunately, people are going to die today. This isn’t normal for the Kentucky/Ohio valley. Knowing more now than i did back in 2012, I’m not surprised it turned out how it did, everything came together for this unfortunately. Thank you Trey for putting some science to this, i remember this day quit vividly.

Another fantastic case study, Trey, thank you! You touched on it briefly at the end of the video, but the skinny cape and massive shear of this event feels so similar to the severe weather events we've had so far this year. Even though this past week ended up being a bust (I would love to hear your thoughts on the meteorology behind why our enhanced risk really never came to pass!) there was so much shear to play with if the actual thermodynamics and forcing/storm mode ended up producing supercells. As we get a bit warmer and those warm sectors get a bit more predictable, I am certainly a bit concerned about what March might look like if we keep getting these crazy hodographs. The thing that stood out most to me about this event is how cell after cell you had the most photogenic, textbook supercell definitions on radar, the amount of distance between the tail of the hook where the debris ball was to where the actual precipitation venting was occurring was massive, which I'm sure contributed to how easy it was to get fantastic pictures/video of the tornadoes themselves. There was so much low-level shear pushing that hook further behind the core precipitation. And that it was consistent enough to produce so many of these near-identical cells. It's truly remarkable. Anyways, thanks again, can't wait for the next one!

Really cool vid! I’m from salyersville and still live there. I remember when this happened so vividly, I haven’t seen a lot of channels if any cover this outbreak despite it being such a landmark for the area. Great stuff!

Thanks very much Trey, great breakdown of the meteorology of the day

Keep up the great work, Sir.

One of my fav outbreaks to study even though 2012 was below avg Good video once again

Great video really enjoyed this study!!

I was actually living in Indiana at this time, near Indianapolis.. had moved back up there for a job/career of a lifetime and it involved a lot of traveling.. shortly after this, we had to drive down south and seeing all the exits shut down off of the interstates just immediately brought my brain back to Moore 1999.. not realizing I would be seeing that happen again coming back to this state in 2013. Henryville was just evil man…. All those people just getting bombarded by baseball sized while trying to perform rescue or being stuck in the elements while trying to escape or fully in their basements/homes while another tornado was coming.. Not that any of these or every good thing is why so many of us are fascinated by the science and trying to understand these things.. but I am digressing.. Good looking forward to this video of yours for a while! I knew it was, even before I knew, lol :) Thanks for all you do!! This quickly became one of my favorite channels!! I share it with just about everyone lol

Trey, any chance you could do a breakdown of the May 27 2019 SW Ohio tornado outbreak and Dayton EF-4?

Hard to believe that so much time has passed from this outbreak. I remember how unusual it was for long tracked tornadoes in eastern Kentucky’s topography. Lots of very photogenic tornadoes. Thanks for your excellent meteorological review. Your videos are a must watch for severe weather forensics!

I am absolutely TFS ( Too Fin Stupid) for your videos, but as an amateur severe weather watcher, I appreciated this video. its good to see the technical explanations even if I have capped and inverted knowledge level when it comes to severe weather. Thanks!

Hey Trey amazing video once again! If you're looking for another incredible event to cover, the often overlooked May 24, 2011 El Reno tornado may be a good one. Some people rank it above El Reno 2013 and May 3rd 1999 based on it's strength and long track at EF5 damage. I'm also curious how such a long and devastating outbreak occuring over 5 days and producing 241 tornados including 2 EF5's took shape. 2011 truly was wild!

Great work man!

The buildings that you referred to as industrial buildings in the aerial photos of the damage in Henryville was actually the school complex, which was almost completely destroyed. One of my friends was a teacher at Henryville and was sheltering in the principals office during the storm. The damage stopped just short of the office, on the other side of the wall. Her classroom was almost completely destroyed, but when they finally let them in to salvage what they could, her stuffed Blue (the Indianapolis Colts mascot) was sitting on her desk not even moved. Her car in the lot was destroyed but her water bottle that she left in her cupholder that morning was right where she left it. There was a huge effort to get the school rebuilt and they did manage to get the school ready for the students to come back for the first day of class in August. Another neat thing was that the country group Lady Antebellum was holding a video contest at the time for school's to make a video saying why they deserved to have Lady A come and play at their prom. Silver Creek High, who is a rival of Henryville, made their video saying why Henryville deserved the prom. Henryville won, and although Lady A was unable to play at the prom due to a prior commitment on that date they did contribute some money towards the prom, and later had a private concert for the. Henryville students and their families. Community members donated and made sure that every girl had a prom dress and all the guys had Tuxes Another friend was a paramedic who responded when the first tornado came thru, treating people who had been injured when the tornado crossed I 65 just prior to moving into Henryville. They were treating a woman who had been sucked out of her car and thrown to the side of the road. While they were still treating the woman, the second tornado came thru and it had very large (baseball or softball sized) hail. Jessica threw her body over the patient to protect her, and one of the guys in the crew managed to grab a door that had been ripped off a semi trailer and held it over them while they finished treating the injured woman. Jessica's back looked like she had been beaten with a baseball bat, and she later received a commendation for her actions that day. I have so many stories from that day since I had a lot of friends along the path of the tornado, and I drove thru both Henryville and New Pekin quite often. In fact, had it happened a day earlier, I would have been driving to work thru New Pekin about the time the tornado hit.

OH yes, I remember this day very well. I live up in Christian County, IL and we had a couple of loud hailers that morning. Certainly glad the cold front went through when it did that day.

Do you have any reference material or anything talking about the absolutely ludicrous windspeed potentials you mentioned while showing where it lifted and chunked pavement?? I had never heard a number that big, but seems valid, so I am just very curious, I’ve been looking into the stuff, my whole life and had not heard that, so I would be very curious to do some more reading or get some more info on that! As always, thank you!!

I remember this event. Lived in Beattyvile Kentucky for all of my childhood was going to visit my friend who lived in Mt. Sterling at the time in 2012 but after hearing bad weather across the state my parents decided it was not a good idea. Remember seeing it on LEX 18 news and was in complete shock and felt awful for all who was affected and just the shear amount of destruction it caused. We experienced horrible weather and really bad winds but luckily no tornadoes did see a funnel over our house which sat between Beattyvile and Jackson Kentucky.

Please do a case study on the 2017 chetak. Wisconsin tornado. Also the 2001 siren Wisconsin tornado and. April 10 2011 tornado outbreak for Iowa and Wisconsin

Fascinating as always

Vortices up to 700 MPH???? THAT IS TERRIFYING

I was living in London at the time and for months afterwards you could see the scar the East Bernstadt tornado left everytime you drove north on I-75

I was teaching in Indianapolis during these storms, and I still have hail damage on my car from that day. Somewhere I have pictures of the (actually) beautiful 1" hail. It was an interesting and frightening experience, because the sirens went off while we were teaching. Also, the industrial buildings you mentioned in Henryville was the school, which has an amazing story associated with it!

Great overview of this event. How about another notable Lower Great Lakes event, May 27, 2019, sometime in the future?

I will never forget this day. I was stuck in school at piner elementary in Kentucky.

Throwing it back to my 11th Bday. For some reason I don’t remember this. The cell that spawned the Henryville tornado actually passed through my county west of Henryville before it was tornadic.

This storm is one that always has me freaked out the most. passed just north of my house in harrison county indiana

Being from West Liberty, I appreciate this.

Awesome case study. 👍🙂

I have a question, it’s probably a silly one, but what causes that upside-down ledge, for lack of a better description, near the ground at the base of a lot of tornadoes? Does it have to do with the way winds come into it near the ground or? Is it very obvious in a lot of storms in Dixie alley and it’s very evident on this tornado, especially in the opening shot. In this case, it would be near the ground on the “right” side of the tornado.. Thanks!

this was a great breakdown Trey! I was wondering if a particular case would peak your interest. On August 21, 2021 two tornados touched down in iuka, Ms. They came from the same parent supercell, however this was the only cell to initiate and it was moving due south. The spc had a less than 2% risk of severe weather forecast. This happened to be my hometown and the event that rocketed me into pursuing meteorology. I know your busy with so many bigger events to cover, however if you have spare time I’d like your opinion on how this happened. A whole video May not be necessary because of how low end the event was, but I’d like to hear what you have to say. Due to it being in august and how unfavorable the pattern was, it’s such an anomaly. Thank you for the time, and keep doing what you do! You really help me a lot!

This event hit real close to home here in Indiana. Same with the crazy event on 5-28-19. And the Tornado Emergency in Dayton Ohio.

Great case study! I'd love to see one on the el Reno/piedmont 2011 EF5, have you considered it?

39:26. Did I hear that right? Some study says it’s possible for some subvorts to contain winds of 700 mph? I have to have misunderstood something. Right?

You should do a case study on the 1996 Oakfield F5. Very interesting storm.

Whoa! How about those radar images! woof 😮

West liberty cell rotated over my head in powell county before it dropped the tornado

I remember this outbreak very clearly. I was in grade school at the time and remember my grandparents picking my sister and I up from an after school program. If that northern EF-3 in Indiana kept going my life would've been changed. My school is in the Westwood neighborhood of Cincinnati and my grandparents house is in Bridgetown/Mack North

I was in 2nd grade at this time, we were on the outskirts of West Liberty. We had to go to my grandparents house because we had no basement. I remember going home and seeing our roof half gone and all my baby bunnies were loose in the yard. Thankfully everyone (even the bunnies) were okay. I remember going to school in the old factory they converted after our school was destroyed.

Where do you get the archived radar data from?

34:35 wow I didn't know that thank you!

I was 8 years old in the movie theater watching the Lorax in charlotte nc when we got a tornado warning! Didn't even know until the movie ended. The tornado warning ended up dropping an EF2 to the northeast of my location.

I am a big fan of tour work. Anyway you can do a May 24 2011 case study?

Having lived in the Huntsville, AL area since 1997, this was a real kick in the dick for North Alabama…specifically Harvest. Not even a year removed from the 2011 super outbreak, and early morning to kick this SOB off an EF3 damn near took the same exact path as the Hackleburg storm did through that community. Still remember coverage on the weather channel via Mike Seidel “Here in Harvest, Alabama a suburb of Huntsville where a tornado just came through moments ago.” Meteorologist back in the studio asked about the storm damage, and his reply was “This is actually damage from the April 27th super outbreak.” Heard stories from a few folks that had finally gotten everything squared away from the prior year, only to lose their house a 2nd time during this event.

Can you do a case study on may 31st 1985 it was extremely violent and local to areas I know that usually don’t get tornados and I just wanna know the details as to what happened that day as there’s not much out there

You should do one for South Dakota tornado Tuesday outbreak. That was 2003, when Simaris got Manchester .

I believe it was either during this outbreak or the one in 2013, though I believe it was this one, i had come home from school very aware of the weather. I had the Weather Channel on while i did homework. At some point i fell asleep and woke up to the newly installed tornado siren going off and a large branch hitting the glass back door. I remember the greenish color of the sky and the absolute terror of get my younger brother and our pets to our safe spot while the storm roared past. It ended up dropping a tornado less than thirty minutes from my home in southwestern ohio

700 mph in a subvortex? Would you mind linking that study if possible?

Violent damage occurred in Henryville. Most notable is probably the Elementary School itself, but the students returned on March 21 2012 a few weeks after the tornado. They had to rent a church tho to continue

So crazy that I really don't remember this outbreak compared to others. I wonder if it's like you mentioned that there's not any peer-reviewed material on it or if it got swept away from where locations this happened or what. It's weird cause I should have remembered this event or AT LEAST some of the tornado video. Even that it was a high risk. Tell you one thing though, the SPC F**KING NAILED their outlooks on this day and I still think while the tornado aspect of this event was wild....something about that long track supercell storm that produced that hail core from the KS/IL border across the state and into Indiana is pretty cool to see. Crazy how I just don't remember the Henryville tornado much at all considering it was barely over a decade ago but damn what a photogenic white beast. Skip got some impressive capture of the motion on that thing all the way up to the cloud base.

Thanks!

I have multiple digital photos on a digital camera of a funnel going over my house. It touched down 5 miles later and killed 4 people. It was an EF2 but they were in a deathtrap otherwise known as a trailer.

On the damage photo of Henryville, that larger building on the left was a school.

Is it the chaotic winds inside a tornado that cause more extreme damage compared to an equal STRAIGHT LINE wind? I feel like a 170mph hurricane wouldn’t sweep a brick home away, but a 170mph EF4 would.

I watched the Henryville Tornado from New Pekin

ready for the march 2nd 2023 synopsis

why did central kentucky decide not to produce any tornadoes? was it due to the anvil shading earlier on from the storms over western kentucky and illinois?

Class back in session! Take notes 📝 📋

This happened on my 18th birthday!

Henryville should’ve been an EF5

Attack of the killer tornadoes! Would make a good B movie lol. Unfortunately, I personally knew some of the victims who were killed on this day. The Babcock family. I met them just a few months before the whole family was killed

I was in this when i was younger up in fort campbell ky believe it or not

🔥

That's a school, not industrial buildings. Not that it really matters. Just letting you know

DOUBLE BOX ACTION

Divergence divergence divergence

😢😢😢😢😢

I was in middle school in 6th grade and it was very scary time for me in my life. I was close to the tornado that hit Henryville on that day. That is why every year I talk about what happened to me on that day. Thankfully my house was not hit but I am a few miles away form where it did happen but thankfully it ever hit my house like I said.

I wad born in march 2 2012