EF1 tornado, Fairfield, Kentucky, April 8, 2020

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

April 8, 2020

Touchdown

11:20 PM EDT (03:20 UTC)

Lifted

11:25 PM EDT (03:25 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

45 yards (41 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Nelson County

Touchdown point

37.921, -85.422

Lift-off point

37.895, -85.372

Record number

2004082120-01

14 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.

• 4 by 8 portions of the barn impaled into the ground 60 yards from the barn
• Metal sheeting thrown 250 yards down wind
• 4 by 10 Impaled in the garage and 50 yards downwind

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

A strong storm system moved from the Midwest into the lower Ohio Valley on April 8, 2020. Isolated storms developed ahead of a sinking cold front during the afternoon across portions of southern Indiana and central Kentucky. These storms dropped large hail and produced damaging winds. Later that evening, a line of severe thunderstorms moved in from the northwest and produced widespread damaging winds and small hail. An EF-1 tornado spun up along the front edge of the line of severe storms and tracked for several miles across Nelson County. Storms pushed east of the region during the early morning hours of April 9, 2020.

The tornado initially touched down on the northwest side of a large family home and farm on Fairfield Road. The upper part of the roof of a two story home was lifted off and thrown in various directions. Several large 2x10s and 2x8s were impaled in the ground about 50 yards from the barn. Two trees on the property sustained extensive twisting and several large section of the trees were snapped. The tornado at this point was only 35 yards wide with wind speeds of 95 mph. The owner of the house was upstairs sleeping, when he heard his ears popping, then a large roar of wind on top of the house and bricks fell on his bed. Surprisingly he sustained no injuries. The tornado then moved across a mixture of open farm fields and scattered forest. There is a significant swath of tree damage between Fairfield Road and Murrays Run Road, with trees uprooted, snapped, and twisted. Thanks to a nelson county drone you could clearly see trees laying in multiple directions. ||The tornado hit a property on Murrays Run Road ripping off the sides of a large well-built barn. The back part of the barn was thrown to the west while a wagon in the trailer was pushed out through the barn. A 72' x 12' shed next to the barn was destroyed. Parts of that barn were impaled into the ground 75 to 80 yards down wind. The tornado was at its widest at 45 yards here with 95 mph winds. Another remarkable thing is the family house was only 60 yards from the damage path, and did not lose even a shingle on the house. Across the street the tornado did extensive roof damage to a family house and barn, uplifting several large parts of it. Debris from the barn was thrown up to 300 yards downwind and in many different directions. The family said that they heard all the doors in the house shut tightly and heard a distinct roar. The tornado produced sporadic damage across farmland mainly in terms of trees, with more concentrated damage along Plum Run Road. Cedar tree damage was rather extensive with many cedars being snapped and twisted. Winds were around 90 mph here with a width of 40 yards. The tornado destroyed an old barn on Chester Hahn Road but weakened to an EF-0 of 80 mph and ended with a few snapped trees before Dugan Lane.

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 tornado watch, issued at 23:30 UTC and running to 04:31 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:04 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), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:00 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 2020 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

24 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.