EF1 tornado in Fulton County, Kentucky

This tornado began in New Madrid County, Missouri, where it briefly attained EF-2 strength. The tornado crossed the Mississippi River at EF-1 intensity into agricultural flatlands of western Fulton County. A swath of highly convergent tree damage occurred in some wooded bottomlands along the Mississippi River levee in Fulton County. As it crossed open farmland, a few farm sheds were destroyed. Power poles and power lines were blown across roads. Swaths of tree damage occurred along tree lines between farm fields. Irrigation pivots were blown over. Several grain bins were destroyed, including a grain bin that was blown over or through a row of trees and across Highway 94. Peak winds were estimated near 110 mph on the Kentucky side of the track. The tornado ended shortly after crossing Kentucky Highway 94 about 2.5 miles west of Hickman. There was scattered tree damage associated with straight-line winds south of the tornado track, likely associated with the rear-flank downdraft. A trained spotter measured a wind gust to 85 mph 5 to 10 miles west of Hickman.

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms occurred over the Tennessee border counties. Thunderstorms rapidly developed across western Kentucky ahead of a line of thunderstorms over the Missouri Bootheel region. These initial storms formed along a southwesterly low-level jet and its associated moisture plume. Large hail was the primary severe weather hazard in this leading activity, which was elevated above the surface. Later in the evening, a surface-based bowing line of thunderstorms exited southeast Missouri and then crossed southwest Kentucky. This bowing line was associated with an embedded supercell that spawned a few tornadoes. The storms developed along and just ahead of a cold front as it pressed southward into the Lower Ohio Valley and extreme southeast Missouri.