EF1 tornado, Mathers Mill to Leafdale, Kentucky, June 23, 2017

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

June 23, 2017

Touchdown

5:37 PM EDT (21:37 UTC)

Lifted

5:45 PM EDT (21:45 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Larue County

Touchdown point

37.529, -85.744

Lift-off point

37.572, -85.669

Record number

1706231537-01

46 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• large tree trunk snapped - damaging vehicle and home
• damage to home from tree debris
• home damaged by nearby trees
• downed trees blocking road

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall along the Gulf Coast and quickly lifted northeast toward the lower Ohio Valley June 22-23. The remnants interacted with a cold front from the Upper Midwest to produced widespread heavy rainfall. The unseasonably moist air mass led to widespread rainfall amounts of 1-2 inches with an embedded swath of 3-6 inches across central Kentucky. This led to numerous reports of flash flooding with some swift water rescues occurring as well. Multiple roads across many counties were closed for a period of time due to the high water. Three river points rose into minor flood, mainly across the Bluegrass region. In addition, several strong to severe thunderstorms tracked across the area which brought down numerous trees and power poles. The environment also supported short spin-up tornadoes and 2 did touch down across central Kentucky.

The tornado first downed a large tree on McDowell Rd 2.8 miles south of Hodgenville. It damaged tree tops at the Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park as it moved northeast. At the end of Earl Jones Road, the tornado destroyed one cinder block and wood barn and damaged the roof of another, scattering debris several hundred yards. The tornado then skipped intermittently over primarily open farmland for several miles before uprooting and snapping several trees along Leafdale Road west of Highway 470.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

8 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:29 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:39 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.