EF1 tornado in Hickman County, Kentucky

This EF-1 tornado began with a cluster of damage along Kentucky 307 just south of Johnson Rd, including on Bizzle Road and Laine Road. Around two dozen trees were blown down, and a grain bin was destroyed on Laine Road. This was the strongest and widest portion of the tornado track. The tornado proceeded northeastward, with damage to a portion of a tree line south of Johnson Road. Large branches and smaller limbs were found on Rushton Road and Kentucky 1529. A tree fell on a house along Highway 1529. A large section of a tree fell onto a home on Wilson Road. The tornado appeared to have lifted shortly after crossing Wilson Road. 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.