Top Western KY Events: #35- Providence/Nebo Tornado of 4/28/2002

This image is a home destroyed in Providence, KY from the wee-morning hours of April 28th. This comes from Esri news.

A significant low-pressure system tracking from western Iowa into the Great Lakes provided enough low-level wind shear, with a pre-frontal trough providing the needed lift. This allowed for a cluster of supercells to form after midnight across SE MO/SIL and eventually into our area. This also resulted in a rare violent tornado outbreak in Maryland the following afternoon.

A supercell producing a significant series of tornadoes in SE MO/S IL moved across the area crossing into Livingston County just south of Carrsville. Then it produced a series of brief EF-1 tornadoes near Marion. The main tornado started just north of Shady Grove in eastern Crittenden County before crossing into Webster County. In Webster County, the tornado which was a 1/2 mile wide hit Providence head-on at around 2:55am. This caused over 26 million dollars in damage (2004 dollars) with over 100 homes and structures heavily damaged or destroyed. There were 26 injuries, but thankfully no fatalities in Providence as the storm moved through. It then crossed Hopkins County destroying several chicken houses and structures just north of Nebo before weakening and dissipating in Hanson. Damage in Hopkins County in 2024 dollars is around 3 million dollars. This border produced 200MPH on the old scale (165MPH on the new EF-3 scale) and was similar in intensity to the Charleston/Barnsley tornado of 5/26/2024 or the Bowling Green tornado of 12/11/2021.

Why Was It Significant

  • This tornado caused major damage, especially in the city of Providence causing several families to lose their homes and many injuries. As we will talk about in future severe weather events, severe weather can generate mental trauma in storm survivors.
  • This severe weather event gave this area and our state valuable experience with GIS technology and helped with the widespread usage of GIS across the state.

LINKS:

Storm coverage by Wayne Hart of this storm as this impacted in Crittenden, Webster, and Hopkins Counties.

https://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring03articles/providence-kentucky.html#:~:text=On%20Sunday%2C%20April%2028%2C%202002,destroyed%20in%20this%20natural%20disaster. – This is the GIS article where the picture at the top of this post comes from.

Click to access AprilTornadoes.pdf

NWS of Paducah summary of this tornado along with other tornadoes in SE MO/S IL and W KY.

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