EF1 tornado in Meade County, Kentucky

Tornado March 30, 2025 · Meade County, Kentucky

EF1

Rating

7.2 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Meade County → Hardin County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Meade and Hardin County, near the communities of Flaherty and Radcliff, and determined an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph occurred the evening of March 30th, 2025. The tornado had a path length of 7.21 miles and a width of 50 yards.

The first damage to be observed was just south of Flaherty Elementary school to a farm outbuilding where major roof loss was observed. A nearby residence also had roof damage occur. The tornado continued across Flaherty Road and Joe Prather Highway

damaging several trees along the way near Rabbit Run Road. The tornado continued across rural sections of Meade County before striking a residence and a garage. The roof lifted over the house and landed about 100 yards away. Siding and tree damage indicated several different directions, indicative of rotation.

The tornado continued along Rogers Lake Road with several trees in different directions, continuing to indicate the rotational damage of the tornado. The damage continued into Hardin County.

The wider storm

On March 30th, a surface low along with the system's cold front dropped southeast from eastern Iowa through southern Indiana and central Kentucky. This resulted in a northeast to southwest oriented line of convection ahead of the front. The added shear from the surface low resulted in organized storms that produced damaging winds and 5 tornadoes throughout north central Kentucky. Wind damage continued farther east into the Bluegrass region, near Lexington.

Began near Flaherty (37.8445, -86.0762).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Breckinridge County EF1 Jefferson County EF1 Spencer County EF1 Meade County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1247773. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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