EF1 Tornado — Nelson, Kentucky

2025-04-03 · near Greenbrier, Nelson, Kentucky

Event narrative

An EF1 tornado, with maximum winds of 105 mph, tracked across an almost three mile stretch of eastern Nelson County during the early morning hours on Thursday, April 3rd. The tornado was on the ground for approximately three minutes and had a peak width of approximately 175 yards.

The tornado touched down along Roberts Road and did some damage to a residence and trees down within the Beech Fork basin. The tornado continued across Beech Fork near Turkey Ridge. Damage continued along a hilltop between Beech Fork and Pottershop Road, uprooting several trees. As the tornado approached Pottershop Road, significant damage was done to several barns and outbuildings, and large tree limbs were snapped. The most substantial damage that occurred in this area was to a small

outbuilding, where only one wall was left standing as debris from this building was thrown 100-200 yards downstream. An adjacent house only sustained minor fascia and soffit damage, although brick columns on one side of the house had slightly buckled due to the wind. Wind speeds in this area were estimated at 105 mph.

The tornado then crossed Pottershop Road and moved along Bear Creek Way for approximately three-quarters of a mile. Scattered instances of snapped or uprooted trees were observed along this stretch of the tornado s path, and several homes received minor roof damage. In addition, multiple barns and small outbuildings

received more significant damage, including one well- built barn which had its entire roof collapse. Damage in this area was consistent with EF1 tornado strength, generally between 90 and 100 mph.

The tornado continued to produce isolated to scattered tree damage between the end of Bear Creek Way and Manton Road as it continued to the east-northeast. Just past Manton Road, the tornado damaged multiple older barns, lean-tos and trees. Between

Manton Road and Borders Lane, the tornado lifted and no significant additional damage was found downstream. The damage at the end of the tornado s path was consistent with high-end EF0 and low-end EF1 levels, generally between 85 and 95 mph.

Wider weather episode

On the night of April 2nd, 2025, a cold front approached the lower Ohio Valley. Along and ahead of the cold front, numerous supercells developed over southern Illinois and western Kentucky. These storms tracked eastward and occasionally grew upscale into a QLCS with bowing segments. Storms lasted all night and into the morning hours, as the cold front began to stall over the lower Ohio Valley. These storms left behind a wake of damage in many counties in central Kentucky. Over the next few days, waves of showers and storms rode along the cold front bringing lots of rain which lead to widespread flash and areal flooding. Showers and storms came through daily, until the evening of April 6th. Later, this flooding turned into historic and near-record breaking river flooding along many river basins.

Overall, 6 tornadoes touched down from late evening into the overnight on April 2nd and 3rd, including one EF-3, one EF-2's, and four EF-1's. Many additional pockets of wind damage occurred, as well as widespread areal and flash flooding through late week into the weekend. Some river crests were historic, including a new record crest at Camp Nelson on the Kentucky River and the #2 all time crest at Frankfort. The crest at McAlpine Upper on the Ohio River was #8 all time.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.7452, -85.4379)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1258699. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.