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EF1 tornado in Oldham County, Kentucky

Tornado April 2, 2024 · Oldham County, Kentucky

EF1
Rating
16.5 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width
32
Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Clark County, Indiana → Jefferson County → Oldham County → Oldham County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The National Weather Service in Louisville surveyed storm damage in southeast Clark County IN, through far northeast Jefferson KY, and into western Oldham County. Specifically the tornado traveled just southeast of the Clark County Indiana Airport, east through Utica, crossing the Ohio River into Prospect, and lifting just east of the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course in Oldham County. The tornado was its strongest in Jefferson County, KY where it was an EF2 with 120 mph winds and 450 yards wide.

Oldham County... The tornado exited Jefferson County and continued east over the Harrods Creek Dam and into the Hidden Creek neighborhood. Many trees were uprooted, barns took damage to the overhead doors and sheet metal, and homes incurred some roof damage. The damage indicated that the tornado weakened to a lower end EF1, with a maximum wind of 90 mph, and a width of 200 yards.

The tornado continued to weaken as it moved parallel to Sleepy Hollow Road. Trees along this road and over the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course were uprooted or topped and barns incurred various structural damage. The damage indicated that the tornado was an EF0, with maximum winds of 80 mph and width of 125 yards.

The tornado lifted along Highway 329 as the parent storm occluded and formed a new tornado to the north.

The wider storm

As a surface low cut across Missouri and Illinois, its eastward stretching warm front moved north across central Indiana while its cold front moved east towards the Lower Ohio Valley. This placed central Kentucky in the warm sector, where 3 separate lines of convection moved through during the day. The first line of storms generating from an early morning outflow boundary dropped southeast through the area. This produced six tornadoes, mainly through the Bluegrass region. The second line, moving west to east, just produced some passing showers and thunderstorms. The third line, just ahead of the cold front, moved through during the evening hours. This produced three more tornadoes along the Interstate 71 corridor. One of these tornadoes began in Clark County, Indiana before crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky.

Began near Belknap Beach (38.3510, -85.5850).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

7 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1176069. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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