EF1 Tornado — Nelson, Kentucky

2024-04-02 · near Chaplin, Nelson, Kentucky

Event narrative

The National Weather Service conducted a storm damage assessment survey in Nelson County from the storms mid morning, April 2. The tornado touched down between Maude Cooksey Lane and Hagan Lane, just northwest of Chaplin, in northeast Nelson County. Drone photography and a resident showed extensive tree damage in the

middle of a farmers field near several farmers ponds. Winds speeds were around 80 mph with a width of 75 yards. The tornado increased in speed to EF1 90 mph all along Hahn Ridge Road. 10 Barns had extensive roof damage, with debris spread to the

east through southerly directions and parts of the barn were thrown up to a half a mile downwind. The width increased to 125 yards.

There was extensive tree damage along with significant structural damage to the Barndominium at KY 62 and Hahn Ridge Road on the north side of 62. This large barn garage structure, lost its entire side garage and was thrown several hundred yards to the east southeast. There were significant 2 by 4 and 2 by 8 boards impairments up to 300 yards downwind. Winds increased to EF1 95 mph with a width of 125 mph. There were trees uprooted and topped along Prather Ridge Road as the tornado continued to move to the east southeast. The tornado was consistently around 85 mph, EF0, with a width of 125 yards. There was uplift of two outbuildings along love Ridge Road, along with uprooted and topped trees. Winds speeds were around 85 mph with a width of

100 yards. The tornado was weakening as it crossed Kentucky 555 and the Chaplain River into Washington County. The EF1 tornado traveled a total of 5.02 miles before lifting just across the Washington County line.

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 → (37.9341, -85.2201)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1176630. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.