EF1 Tornado — Butler, Kentucky

2024-05-26 · near Huntsville, Butler, Kentucky

Event narrative

This tornado is a continuation from Muhlenberg County, where the tornado initially developed before moving east southeastward into Butler and ultimately Warren County before lifting. In total, this EF1 tornado was on the ground for over 40 miles and 50 minutes across three counties. Please see the Storm Data submission from the National Weather Service office in Paducah for more information about the tornado as it passed through Muhlenberg County.

It was determined that a long-track EF1 tornado crossed the

Muhlenberg/Butler county line near Mud River Mine Road, and

then quickly crossed over Penrod Road and Arnold Ridge Road where it was at

EF1 strength. Numerous hardwoods were snapped and uprooted along this road.

The tornado traveled eastward across Huntsville Quality road at

EF0 strength, continuing to uproot and break off large limbs of

hardwoods. As the tornado traveled eastward toward the

intersection of Coal Road and Southhill Union Road some tree

damage was noted along with the roof blown out of a medium sized

outbuilding. This damage was noted as low-end EF1. The path

continued more southeastward toward the intersection of Southhill

Union Road and Givens Road where some more intense clustering of

snapped, uprooted, and snarled hardwoods was noted. Luckily, no

trees fell on homes in this area.

The southeastward path continued across Muddy Creek, before

taking a brief eastward jog along Sandy Creek Road. From here,

more intensity was noted as the southeastward track resumed and

the tornado headed toward Kentucky Route 79, Russellville Road. Particularly, more intense damage was noted at the intersection of Russellville Road and Richland Church

Road and points eastward where a steeple was knocked off a church,

and much more intense tree damage occurred to a grove of

hardwoods. Damage just to the south of this intersection on Dimple

Road was determined to be straight-line inflow into the parent

circulation. Damage along Richland Church Road was noted at 90 to 100

mph as numerous hardwoods were snapped, uprooted, and snarled.

Some cars were damaged with trees falling on them, as well as some

minor structural damage to homes and outbuildings.

The path continued toward Sugar Grove Road, U.S. Route 231, and Interstate 165 where trees continued to be damaged by mostly EF0 winds. The tornado then crossed into northwestern Warren County just south of U.S. Route 231.

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 → (37.1341, -86.9116)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1189011. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.