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F4 tornado in Nelson County, Kentucky

Tornado April 3, 1974 · Nelson County, Kentucky

Rating

36.2 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$525K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Hardin County → Nelson County → Spencer County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F4 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F4 meant devastating damage: well-built houses levelled; the scale paired it with winds of 207–260 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

Moved from northwest of Elizabethtown, doing damage on the north side of town. Moving into Nelson County, produced significant damage near Cox's Creek where the Whitney Horse Farm was damaged, crossing Lilly Pike where several homes, barns, and trailers were demolished, across Murray Road, and then across KY 44. On Murray Road a father and son were in their milking barn when they saw the storm approach. They got under some heavy equipment for shelter and the barn came down around them. They were rescued several hours later as workers and neighbors cleared Murray Road of trees and debris. The father was taken to the hospital in critical condition but the son was OK. As the twister crossed Murray Road and Elk Creek it was about 300 yards wide.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. Written accounts from this era do exist in NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications (scanned, back to 1959).

Began near Bardstown (37.7778, -85.7337).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10032304. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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