Tornado in Kentucky, June 17, 1997

Several eyewitnesses including at least a half dozen policemen or firemen had nearly identical reports of very narrow rope shaped vortices descending to the ground briefly. There were at least two separate occurrences in the Oak Grove area with another occurring adjacent to the Fort Campbell air field. A 52 MPH wind was reported at the air field, although it was not thought to be in the direct path of the funnel cloud. Some descriptions sounded like the funnel clouds formed in conjunction with towering cumulus clouds instead of cumulonimbus clouds (thunderstorms). Nobody remembered hearing any thunder although a minority reported some rain. A television station in Hopkinsville obtained videotape of the Oak Grove tornado. The primary damage was in a mobile home park, where a mobile home was overturned and destroyed. Two occupants of the mobile home were slightly injured, but did not require treatment at any hospital. Other mobile homes in the park were slightly damaged. An estimated 130,000 dollars damage occurred at the Fort Campbell Army Post due to a brief funnel touchdown. Most of the damage at the base occurred in the shop area of the Directorate of Logistics building, where it tore off the roof, exposing expensive test equipment. The upper part of a wall in an adjacent building was damaged.