EF1 Tornado — Henry, Kentucky

2024-04-02 · near Jericho, Henry, Kentucky

Event narrative

The National Weather Service in Louisville confirmed an EF1 tornado in south central Henry County starting near Jericho and ending southeast of New Castle.

The tornado touched down near the intersection of state routes 153 and 712. Keepers Restaurant had roof damage, a travel trailer moved 15 yards, and many boards were impaled into the ground. There were extensive topped and uprooted trees behind the Dollar General. Winds were 90 mph, EF1, with a width of 125 yards.

The tornado destroyed a double wide mobile home, then snapped and uprooted trees along Whitaker Lane. The mobile home was loosely anchored, and the family had heard the NWS tornado warning. Together with other family members next door, they all went to a well constructed home nearby and everyone survived! Winds increased to 110 mph, EF1, with a width of 175 yards.

The tornado did plenty of topped and uprooted tree damage along Bates Lane and Hieatt Lane over to Jackson Creek. Most of this damage was 80-85 mph, EF1, with a width of 125 mph, but one barn had extensive roof damage, and was EF1, 9O mph wind, with a width of 125 yards.

Next, the survey team observed topped and twisted trees along with gutter and roof shingle damage at Sunnyside Rd and Jackson Rd. Maximum winds were 90 mph, EF1, with a width of 200 yards.

The tornado continued eastward and hit the south side of New Castle. It hit 2 metal building warehouses and a large storage shed damaging side and roofing panels. Winds were 90 to 95 mph, EF1, with a width of 175 yards. There were plenty of straight

line winds of 80 mph on the north side of the tornado, especially on the northwestern side.

The tornado crossed US 421 and damaged a bunch of power poles and lines on KY 573 (South Property Road) with a lot of topped pine and cedar trees. Max winds were 85 mph, EF0, with a width of 125 yards.

The last damage point was at the end of Burrett Lane, with a few twisted large branches and topped trees. Max winds were 75 mph, EF0, with a width of 75 yards.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.4081, -85.2901)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1176353. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.