EF1 tornado in Harrison County, Kentucky

A storm survey confirmed that an EF-1 tornado damaged numerous barns, garages and outbuildings along Dutch Chapel Road. Two homes along this road had significant roof damage. This area of concentrated damage was embedded in a much wider area of lighter damage caused by straight line winds across northern Harrison County. Residents along Dutch Chapel Road reported popping ears and a roaring noise embedded within driving rain and gusty winds associated with a squall line.

A deep trough embedded within the southern stream of the jet combined with unseasonably rich moisture to bring widespread flooding and a regional severe weather outbreak to the Lower Ohio Valley during the afternoon and evening of December 21st. Heavy rains, on the order of 2 to locally as much as 3 inches, developed during the morning hours across southern Indiana and the Kentucky counties along the Ohio River. These heavy rains, augmented by a December record 1.7 inches of precipitable water, developed along a stationary front that lay along but just north of the Ohio River from Cairo, IL to Cincinnati. These early rains, combined with thunderstorms during the afternoon and early evening, brought areal and river flooding to north central Kentucky.

By early afternoon, low pressure deepened as it moved northeast across central Illinois and northern Indiana. Rains ceased by mid-day as central Kentucky fell within the warm sector of the developing cyclone. Record high temperatures in the lower 70s arrived by early evening. A severe squall line developed by mid-afternoon from southern Illinois southwards along the Mississippi River. This line of storms, fueled by ample moisture and an exceptionally strong low level jet in excess of 50 kts, became severe as it moved across southern Indiana and central Kentucky during the evening hours. Three circulations within this line produced tornadoes across central Kentucky and the Bluegrass Region. For the Louisville weather office, these 3 December tornadoes were the first observed since 1971. This line also brought widespread damaging winds, especially to the Bluegrass Region and Hart and Barren Counties in Central Kentucky.