EF0 tornado in Livingston County, Kentucky

A towboat captain on the Ohio River near the confluence of the Tennessee River reported a tornado narrowly missed the boat as it crossed the river. The tornado ripped the flag off the flagpole on the bow of the vessel. No other damage was reported. Peak winds were estimated near 65 mph.

A strong cold front moved through the region, preceded by numerous thunderstorms during the evening hours on December 5th and into the early morning on the 6th. Large hail, a few tornadoes, and an isolated damaging wind event accompanied the strongest storms. There were four tornadoes that touched down in the Tennessee border counties of western Kentucky. A loose clustering of storms and embedded supercells caused most of the severe weather in the evening. Overnight, the severe weather was mostly in the form of a convective line with embedded mesoscale circulations. The severe storm environment was characterized by weak instability but very strong wind shear.