EF1 tornado, Ballardsville to Pewee Vly, Kentucky, June 26, 2018

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 26, 2018

Touchdown

1:44 PM EDT (17:44 UTC)

Lifted

1:49 PM EDT (17:49 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$550,000

Counties

Oldham and Jefferson counties

Touchdown point

38.306, -85.530

Lift-off point

38.300, -85.465

Record number

1806261144-01

On the second day of heavy rain across central Kentucky, a quasi-stationary boundary was draped across the area. Training storms across south central KY in the morning resulted in significant flash flooding. Strong to severe thunderstorms then developed during the late morning across east central KY. As these storms moved off to the east another round of storms moved in from the west in response to a system moving out of central Missouri. These storms resulted in many reports of wind damage as well as some additional flooding and flash flooding. Moderate shear contributed to an EF-1 tornado touching down in Louisville near the Ford truck plant.

This tornado touched down at the entrance of Westport Woods Apartments. Across from the complex numerous trees were snapped or topped off. On pacelli Place parts of trees were thrown into two houses, puncturing the siding. Most of the damage was high end EF0 around 85mph with much of the damage being 20 to 50 yards off the ground.||There were some hardwood trees uprooted and parts of them fell onto homes, fences, trampolines, and swing sets. Besides trees being twisted and turned in multiple directions, there was leaf and mud spattering on several homes in opposite directions of the storm movement. Intermittent tree top damage continued near Lake Louisvilla. At Westport Business Center there was significant roof damage with portions of the roofing material and parts of the roof supports 20 to 50 yards downwind and several windows blown out. At Ceva Logistics a large section of the north wall was pushed out due to 75-80 mph winds.||The tornado struck the north portion of Westport Bend Commerce Park, snapping and bending several trees. The tornado began to skip and struck a few trees in Forest Springs North before moving into Oldham County.

This tornado touched down at the entrance of Westport Woods Apartments in Jefferson County. After exiting the Forest Spring North subdivision, the tornado lifted briefly before dropping back down on the east side of Pewee Valley near Five Forks Drive. Near Manassas Drive a trampoline was thrown 60 yards and a large sycamore tree was uprooted next to an air conditioner that was thrown to the north. The tornado then increased in strength and uprooted several trees along Hawley Gibson Road. One resident lost twenty softwood and hardwood trees. The tornado lifted just east of Hawley Gibson Road, twisting several trees on a farm there.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 14:26 UTC and running to 18:27 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:42 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 2018 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

17 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.