EF1 tornado in McCracken County, Kentucky

This EF-1 tornado began just south of Kentucky Highway 999 and moved northeast for about two miles. A barn was destroyed. Debris from the barn damaged a nearby house and was embedded into a small trailer over 100 yards away. Some debris was buried up to three feet deep. Another outbuilding was destroyed. As the tornado crossed Highway 999, it damaged the roofs of two homes. A garage between the two homes had windows broken, and the west side of the building was pushed out. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along the path of the tornado. There was an eyewitness account of the tornado. Peak winds were estimated near 100 mph.

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes occurred across western Kentucky. Most of the severe weather was along and south of a Paducah to Madisonville line. North of that line, serious flash flooding resulted in a fatality. A surface low pressure center tracked rapidly north-northeast from Arkansas to the upper Mississippi Valley, dragging a warm front north across western Kentucky. Instability was adequate for tornadoes and severe storms in the presence of very strong wind shear. A very moist air mass resulted in heavy rainfall, which produced localized flash flooding due to the water-logged ground. Locally 5 to 6 inches of rain had fallen over the previous week. Rainfall rates in these thunderstorms were locally one-half to one inch per hour.