EF1 tornado in Meade County, Kentucky

A National Weather Service Louisville storm survey confirmed an EF1 tornado

just north of Vine Grove. The tornado touched down off Fort

Avenue near Browning Drive. There was some twisting of cedar trees,

topping of maple trees, and one uprooted black walnut tree.

Trees were facing from a northerly direction to an east

southeasterly direction. Wind speeds were estimated to be between

80 and 85 mph, EF0, with a width of 100 yards in this area.

The tornado increased in strength near Knox Avenue with trees

topped and uprooted. A one story house had a large section of its

roof ripped off. Debris from the house was thrown from the east

southeast all the way to the north northeast. Drone photography

was instrumental in determining it was a tornado. Wind speeds were

estimated to be 90 mph, EF1, with a width of 150 yards.

The tornado produced very sporadic tree damage, and lifted before

reaching Hardin County.

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.