EF1 tornado in McCracken County, Kentucky

This tornado tracked from Ballard County east-northeast across McCracken County. The tornado stayed mainly over rural farm country of southwest McCracken County until it crossed the Lone Oak and Hendron communities near Paducah. The tornado finally dissipated as it crossed the south side of Paducah, a few miles northwest of Reidland. Although there was some minor roof damage to homes along the path, almost all of the damage was done to large, mature trees. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted (50/50). Several sheds and outbuildings were damaged. Grain bins and barns were damaged on farms in rural southwest parts of the county. On the south side of Paducah, windows were blown out of a strip mall, signage to a business was destroyed, and there was roof damage to a former church. The two main areas of significant damage were along Gum Springs Road (near Lone Oak) and in the Hendron area. A large swath of straight-line damaging winds (up to 110 mph) paralleled the track about one-half mile south from the inception of the tornado until about Interstate 24, where they merged over the Hendron area and became a single smaller path to the south side of Paducah. Peak winds in the tornado were also estimated near 110 mph.

Clusters of thunderstorms formed over western Kentucky early in the afternoon. Several of these storms produced large hail or damaging wind. However, the main event was a line of severe thunderstorms that entered southeast Missouri about mid-afternoon and then tracked east across western Kentucky late in the afternoon and early in the evening. Several EF-1 tornadoes were associated with this line, in addition to scattered pockets of wind damage. The storms occurred under a rather strong southwest wind flow ahead of a weak cold front over far western Missouri. A 500 mb shortwave trough over the western high Plains provided some additional support for the storms. The air mass was strongly unstable, with surface capes over 3000 j/kg.