EF3 Tornado — Logan, Kentucky

2021-12-11 · near Crossroads, Logan, Kentucky

Event narrative

This tornado formed approximately 1 mile southwest of Crossroads near Watlington Road and tracked northeast for approximately 22 miles before crossing into western Warren County. The tornado continued approximately 6 miles into Warren County before dissipating at 0114 CST. In Logan County, the supercell that had cycled down its tornado in eastern Todd County (but continued to produce wind damage northeast of Elkton) spun back up again soon after crossing the border into western Logan County. It quickly ramped up to EF-3 (140 mph) intensity with a damage swath roughly three quarters of a mile wide along Milton Sharp Rd. On the southern side, a family was home when a 2 by 4 narrowly missed the husband as the roof was being peeled off the middle of the house. On the north side, a large dairy farm was completely destroyed. As the tornado continued northeast, a wide swath of trees was snapped/uprooted along the edge of a forest on the southern edge of the vortex, while on the north edge a well built home had its second floor two-thirds thrown off. A male was in the other section when a 2 by 4 from the first floor came up and got lodged in his mattress. Another well built log cabin in this area lost its second floor roof. The tornado then turned more ENE in the Buena Vista Rd area. A doublewide manufactured home was completely destroyed here along with several outbuildings on the property. A male at the home received warning from family and heard the tornado approach, getting into a bath tub in the middle of the east side of the structure. After it hit, the home blew into a row of trees and the male remembers grabbing onto a tree southeast of his original location. He sustained injuries as medics had to get wood out of his legs. The tornado continued over to Lakewood Ln where a boy was in the second story of a house when the window imploded inward and moved the bed he was in. After this, the storm crossed US 431, impacting several trees along Hwy 1040 with EF1 level winds. It then moved to a row of mobile homes along H.C. Johnson Rd. Two of these homes were completely destroyed, with one blown into a row of trees south of its original point and another lifted up and over a tree just east of its original location. This may have been a mesovortex spinning around the main circulation. The tornado damage was widest at this location, roughly 0.8 mile. On the south side of the tornado, a mobile home was completely destroyed along Hwy 915 where it was spread out over the road. The resident was a female whose father insisted she stay the night at his place, with a basement, after hearing the messaging in the days before. That same mesovortex may have been what caused the collapse of an electric transmission line just east of Marshall Rd where there was little damage to surrounding trees. Farther north on that road a well built brick home had its roof taken off as well as the carport removed. The tornado continued to track along Hwy 79 towards the Chandlers Chapel area where the Methodist Church lost its steeple and had damage to several of the stained glass windows. A couple of homes had major damage here. A resident said he had at least 20 minutes of warning lead time ahead of the touchdown. There was additional damage along Turner Road and then 3 Poplars Rd. This survey ended soon after 3 Poplars Rd. Another survey was conducted in the far northeast corner of Logan County where a couple of long chicken barns were leveled.

Wider weather episode

Strong southern winds brought warm temperatures and plenty of moisture into an environment of strong wind shear ahead of an advancing cold front. This resulted in unusually warm temperatures for a December day and the ingredients to produce a historic tornado outbreak and flash flooding. This included multiple long track tornadoes. Central Kentucky saw 18 tornadoes that injured 96 and killed 18. An additional death occurred in a flash flood.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 997148. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.