EF1 Tornado — Clinton, Kentucky

2024-05-26 · near Albany Arpt, Clinton, Kentucky

Event narrative

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey and found a

tornado occurred on Sunday, May 26th, 2024. Damage was observed

to have started just north of the intersection of Wisdom Dock

Road and Charlie Murray Road near Shipley where there were

uprooted trees in farm fields consistent with EF0 85 mph wind

speeds. The tornado then crossed Littles Road where damage to a

residence porch occurred with more tree damage. The most notable

tree damage occurred along Littles Lane where two barns were

destroyed at a residence with winds consistent with 105 mph winds.

Damage was thrown in varying directions, but the most notable was

several impalements of two by four wood planks into the nearby corn

field. Eyewitnesses also had pictures of the tornado from just

to the north of this location that clearly showed rotation. The

tornado ended just north of a neighborhood along Schooner Landing

Road.

Wider weather episode

A strong storm system moved across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on May 26th and into the early morning hours of May 27th, 2024. Two waves of strong to severe thunderstorms moved across central Kentucky, producing numerous occurrences of straight-line wind damage and 8 tornadoes while crossing the region. The first wave of storms moved across central Kentucky as a large bowing quasi-linear convective system during the late morning and early afternoon hours. This line of storms produced widespread straight-line wind damage, with particularly heavy damage observed across the Louisville metro and northern Woodford County. Two quick spin up tornadoes in Clinton County were also associated with this line.

After a second sub-severe line of storms moved across the area during the early afternoon hours, conditions were relatively quiet until the mid-to-late afternoon, when strong and severe cells began to develop across western Kentucky and southern Illinois. The storms would initially be discrete before growing into another large line of storms which produced the heaviest damage south of Interstate 64. Six tornadoes would be associated with this second line, with a long track EF1 tornado extending for over 40 miles across Muhlenberg, Butler, and Warren County. Heavy straight-line wind damage was also observed with this second line of storms, especially in Barren, Mercer, and Garrard County. The line of storms finally pushed east of the area shortly after midnight on May 27th, bringing an end to an active 16 hours across central Kentucky.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6829, -85.1885)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1188876. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.