EF2 Tornado — Oldham, Kentucky

2024-04-02 · near Devondale, Oldham, Kentucky

Event narrative

The National Weather Service in Louisville surveyed storm damage north of Buckner, Kentucky near New Cut Road. The team followed the concentrated storm damage into the Heather Ridge and Grand Villa neighborhoods, and east of Oldham County High School.

The tornado touched down on Halls Hill Road north of New Cut Road, where a few trees were leaning on power lines. This damage was a result of an EF0 tornado with a wind speed of 70 mph.

From Halls Hill Road, the tornado moved east into the Heather Ridge neighborhood. The west half of the neighborhood incurred EF1 95 mph winds, which led to many uprooted or topped trees and minor roof damage. At this point, the tornado strengthened to an EF2 with 115 mph winds while moving into the eastern half of the

neighborhood. Garage doors were inverted or blown off their track, windows were blown out, large portions of roof structures were compromised, mud and insulation were spread all over cars and homes, wood from roof structures was impaled into the ground several feet, and trees were uprooted or snapped. One homeowner was able to catch the tornado with his home security system. Another homeowner explained the terrifying sound of the wind as they took shelter in their basement.

From the Heather Ridge neighborhood, the tornado continued into the Grand Villa neighborhood where it weakened to an EF1 tornado with 100 mph winds. In this neighborhood, numerous trees were uprooted and one home had an inverted garage door.

The tornado then continued over Oldham County High School where the roof HVAC system was blown to the ground and a street light was bent. Across the street, a metal warehouse took some roof damage and the garage doors were inverted. At this point, the tornado was an EF1 at 90 mph.

East of the high school, the tornado weakened to an EF0 at 80 mph where a church took damage to the steeple and large limbs were snapped. A large open faced metal RV storage building took damage to the roof and walls.

The tornado then weakened as it crossed I-71, leading to some topped trees in the interstate median. The tornado lifted on the southeast side of the interstate.

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 → (38.3862, -85.4978)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1176386. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.