EF1 tornado in Jessamine County, Kentucky

The National Weather Service in Louisville found a tornado occurred on Sunday October 19th in west Nicholasville at the RJ Corman Group complex near Highway 27. The tornado is believed to have started off as a cold air funnel that was able to briefly get down to the surface. The tornado touched down at Big Tunnel Road near Jessamine Creek with uprooted trees and large branch damage. From the damage, there was a convergent signature that is consistent with a tornadic circulation. The tornado moved across a field and more tree damage was observed near RJ Corman Drive. The tornado then hit an RJ Corman warehouse where two garage doors were blown out and a portion of the warehouse wall was pulled away from the building. Security camera footage confirms that a very small funnel caused the damage to the building. Pieces of insulation, wood planks, and metal from the walls of the building were lifted to the rooftop. On the roof of the building, three HVAC units were displaced from their locations. The maximum sustained winds were 90 mph at the metal building. The tornado continued across a paved lot and ended shortly after RJ Corman Drive to the west of US Highway 27 for a total distance of 0.65 miles.

During the morning hours, a north to south oriented cold front pushed east through central Kentucky. The front produced a main line of convection with a small but more intense secondary line behind the front. It was this secondary line that produced an isolated short-lived tornado in Jessamine County.