EF0 tornado in Larue County, Kentucky

A National Weather Service damage survey determined that a brief EF0 tornado touched down about 1.5 miles east-northeast of Buffalo in LaRue County. Peak winds were 85 mph with a path width of 20 yards and a two mile long path. Most of the impacts from the tornado consisted of a mixture of downed trees, collapsed barns, and shingle damage to some homes.

During the evening hours of December 18th, a strong cold front moved across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, with a line of showers and thunderstorms oriented along the front. Ahead of the cold front, there was strong southerly flow which attempted to bring moisture into south central Kentucky from the Gulf, with temperatures warming into the low 60s and dewpoint temperatures rising into the mid 50s. Still, the atmosphere ahead of the front was only marginally unstable, with around 100-300 J/kg of surface-based CAPE depicted in mesoanalysis data ahead of the line of storms. However, with the strong wind field aloft, even this meager amount of instability was sufficient for severe storm impacts across south central Kentucky, with scattered tree damage and wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph occurring with the line of storms. One QLCS tornado also occurred in LaRue County, as a short-lived EF0 touched down northeast of Buffalo.