EF1 Tornado — Barren, Kentucky

2024-05-26 · near Cooktown, Barren, Kentucky

Event narrative

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey and found a

tornado occurred on Sunday, May 26th, 2024. The tornado started

near Peter Creek about 11 miles south of Glasgow where a rather

large area of snapped and uprooted trees was observed via drone

footage along farm fields. The tornado continued through the

forest doing extensive tree damage along Dorsey Road consistent

with 100 to 110 mph wind speeds. Drone footage was impressive

with both the extent and directions of the uprooted trees with

clear indication of convergence as the tornado crossed Peter

Creek.

The tornado then crossed Oil Well Road and Dry Fork Road

with more tree damage before doing structural damage near the

intersection of Dry Ford Road and Cooktown Road. A few carports

were damaged and a barn had collapsed walls consistent with

EF1 95 mph wind speeds. The tornado continued along Cooktown

Road with many trees uprooted along the way through Roseville,

Caney Fork, and Button Roads near Etoile. The tornado ended near

a residence along Shoal Creek where at least 30 trees were

uprooted and damaged.

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 → (36.8421, -85.9769)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1189028. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.