EF2 tornado in McCracken County, Kentucky

The tornado continued into McCracken County from Ballard County. Six to eight residences were heavily damaged or destroyed. The residences were a mix of mobile homes and houses. The steeple was blown off a church. Numerous barns and sheds were destroyed or damaged, with debris carried several hundred yards and deposited in trees. There were several injuries, including one serious injury. Two semi-trailers were flipped on their side. A few stationary vehicles were moved 50 to 75 yards. The tornado exited the county when it crossed the Ohio River into Massac County, IL.

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.