EF1 tornado in Fulton County, Kentucky

This EF-1 tornado began near the center of Hickman, in the Terrace Drive and Sunset Street area. Damage to trees and power lines occurred in this neighborhood. This tornado tracked to the east-southeast, with more tree damage on Bayou Street and Johnson Lane. A large tree fell onto a home on Myron Cory Drive. The tornado crossed Kentucky 125 and proceeded to 7th Street, where the most significant cluster of damage occurred with several trees uprooted, portions of a few trees snapped, and power line damage. One of the trees fell onto a car. The storm was at its peak width around Kentucky 125 and 7th Street. Additional damage to trees occurred on Nelson Street and Harrison Street. The damage path ended at this point, with the tornado lifting after moving into open areas east of Nelson Street. Peak winds were estimated near 105 mph.

Clusters of strong thunderstorms over southeast Missouri and northwest Tennessee merged into a complex of severe thunderstorms over southwest Kentucky. Widespread damaging winds and a couple of isolated tornadoes accompanied the storms along the Tennessee border from Fulton and Hickman Counties eastward into south Graves County. Rainfall amounts ranging from 1 to 3 inches occurred across portions of western Kentucky. This included Fulton, Hickman, Graves, and Calloway counties. Much of this rain fell within 30 minutes to 1 hour. The storms weakened as they moved east across the Murray area, where heavy rain and street flooding was the main impact. The storms fed on a southwest wind flow of strongly unstable air. The most unstable air was slightly elevated, characterized by most-unstable layer capes around 2500 j/kg. Rather strong westerly mid-level winds around 40 knots provided sufficient vertical shear for this organized severe weather episode. The storms occurred ahead of a cold front that trailed southwest across the Ozarks from a low pressure center over the Great Lakes region. A subtle 500 mb shortwave in the west-northwest flow aloft aided the storms.