EF2 tornado in Ballard County, Kentucky

The tornado crossed the Ohio River from Pulaski County, IL into the Ballard State Waterfowl Management Area along the river in Ballard County. Near Oscar, a few barns and a machine shed were blown down. A porch was blown off a home. The tornado carved a damage path near Bandana and Oscar. One mobile home and one farm was destroyed near Bandana. Hundreds of trees were uprooted or snapped. Some homes sustained minor to moderate roof damage. Other homes received siding and gutter damage. Several power poles were snapped. Several chicken houses were damaged or destroyed. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph. The average path width was 125 yards. The tornado continued into McCracken County.

A squall line with embedded sustained supercells entered western Kentucky early in the morning. The embedded supercells raced east-northeast at 60 to 70 mph, while the line moved southeast at a slower rate. The storms strengthened as they encountered richer low-level moisture, with surface dew points around 60 degrees spreading rapidly north-northeastward up the Mississippi Valley. Intense low to mid-level wind fields maintained the intensity of tornadic storms despite weak instability due to lack of solar heating. A south-southwesterly low level jet from 60 to 70 knots veered to west-southwest around 75 knots at 500 mb. By mid-morning, the solid squall line evolved into a broken line of discrete storms over the Pennyrile region and Kentucky Lake region. While these discrete storms maintained severe levels, their tornado production decreased.