EF1 Tornado — Marion, Kentucky

2022-01-01 · near Lebanon, Marion, Kentucky

Event narrative

A quick EF-1 tornado dropped down across the property of the Kentucky Cooperage, with small whirls rotating around a mainline vortex that likely remained just above the surface.

The first area of narrow damage occurred where an empty trailer got shoved on its side on the southwest side of the property. The corner of a metal building also had some damage. There was little evidence of other damage in that vicinity.

The next damage occurred on a trailer garage just south of the main building. Its roof was peeled off and one side wall collapsed. The roof ended up about 50 yards southeast. Also of note, the plant manager said that mud was splattered on the south wall of the main building here, which mostly was cleaned off by the heavy rain afterward.

Next, a flat metal roof got twisted in several directions as the small vortex with 100 mph winds hit it. The last of the damage occurred in the parking lot across from the northwest side of the property. The southernmost trailer in a north- south line of empty trailers was rotated from its starting position. A nearby garage door also crumpled inward.

Wider weather episode

During New Year's Eve into New Year's Day, active weather was observed across Kentucky as several waves of low pressure moved along a frontal boundary that was stalled across the region. This resulted in multiple rounds of widespread precipitation, and rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches with locally higher amounts observed across the area. As the boundary lifted north as a warm front New Year's Day, strong to severe storms were able to develop within the warm sector ahead of an approaching cold front, with multiple tornadoes and scattered straight-line wind damage being observed.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.5740, -85.2340)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1004012. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.