EF1 tornado, Vaverly Hills to Parkway Vlg, Kentucky, April 5, 2023

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 5, 2023

Touchdown

5:05 PM EDT (21:05 UTC)

Lifted

5:06 PM EDT (21:06 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

38.198, -85.698

Lift-off point

38.198, -85.691

Record number

2304051505-01

54 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 110 mph.

• One tree due east (100) and one tree northeast (030)

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

During the afternoon and evening hours of April 5, a low pressure system, moving northeast from Minnesota into Ontario, dragged a trailing cold front through the Lower Ohio Valley. This produced a line of severe storms that moved west to east over central Kentucky, resulting in multiple reports of tree damage, structural damage, and four combined tornadoes in Jefferson and Meade Counties.

The National Weather Service in Louisville confirmed an EF-1 tornado in the Pleasure Ridge Park area of western Jefferson County. The tornado touched down just east of Dixie Highway (U.S. Route 31W) at the edge of the railroad tracks, just south of|Blanton Lane and just east of Lowe's home improvement store. The tornado did extensive tree damage, ranging from uprooted large root balls to twisted and snapped trees to a few large branches impaled into the ground.||Trees were facing from a north-northeasterly direction all the way to an east-southeasterly direction. Several trees crushed cars along Mills Drive. Numerous power lines were down, and many homes had shingle, gutter, and fascia damage. Several garages and out buildings sustained roof and siding damage all along Blanton Lane. |Drone photography showed extensive tree damage with several uprooted larger trees. One outbuilding near Oak Valley Drive had its roof |and siding blown 125 yards. Wind speeds in this part of the tornado |were between 90 and 100 mph.||The tornado snapped several hardwood trees along Rosemary Lane, along |with sporadic roofing damage to homes. At a house on the 7600 block of Rosemary Lane, a western facing window was somehow sucked out and thrown back to the northwest, some 30 yards away. The homeowner recounted a huge pressure change |when the tornado hit. ||The tornado intensified on Brooklawn Drive, towards the back portion of the apartments. One entire roofing section of an apartment complex was picked up and thrown and twisted into the trees on the hill behind. This was the most extensive and drastic amount of damage in the area. In the parking lot east of that building, insulation and building fascia surrounded vehicles.||The furthest east apartment building had half of the south-facing fascia and brick removed. In addition, the back side (eastern portion) of the apartment building had a large portion of the siding and fascia removed. All of the roof material, siding, and|insulation was thrown and splattered into the trees. Drone photography showed it scattered about from a northeasterly to a southeasterly facing direction. Wind speeds in the Brooklawn apartment complex were 110 mph, a high-end EF-1 rating.||The tornado lifted on top of the hill just behind the last apartment building and before it reached Renwood Boulevard.

The National Weather Service in Louisville conducted a storm assessment survey across the Watterson Park neighborhood in Louisville. This is the area just south of the intersection of Newburg Road and Interstate 264 (Watterson Expressway). There|were two tornadoes in this area separated by a clear and distinct break of about 200 yards.||The first tornado started just north of the main Post Office distribution center. The tornado touched down just northwest of the intersection of Colonel Sanders Drive and Gardiner Lane. Trees were snapped and uprooted in this area before the tornado struck the roof of Yum! Brands headquarters. The northeast side of the well-constructed |building had a substantial portion of parapet wall removed and the brick wall was partially pushed inwards. Wind speeds in this area were estimated to be 95 mph.||The tornado continued to produce tree damage, including snapped, twisted, and uprooted trees. Wind speeds were between 87 and 90 mph in this area. The tornado lifted by Robards Lane just south of Gardiner Lane.

The National Weather Service in Louisville conducted a storm assessment survey across the Watterson Park neighborhood in Louisville. This is the area just south of the intersection of Newburg Road and Interstate 264 (Watterson Expressway). There|were two tornadoes in this area separated by a clear and distinct break of about 200 yards. ||The second tornado touched down near the intersection of Annshire Avenue and Vineyard Drive. There was some sporadic tree damage just south of the US Post Office on Gardiner Lane, ranging from 80 to 85 mph. The twister quickly increased in strength to an EF-1 tornado of 90 mph, hitting the the DashMart warehouse. The western |wall of the warehouse was blown out with debris scattered downwind from the northeast to southeast direction. There was tree damage further east including some debarking of older softwood trees. The north side of a mini storage facility had significant damage, and part of the Kroger distribution center had some substantial wall damage. ||The tornado next crossed Gardiner Lane and hit the Big Brothers Big Sisters building, knocking down a statue and causing minor roof damage. There was more roof damage at the Louisville Metro Housing Authority off of Bishop Lane. There was wood fence damage between the Speedway and Little People Academy off of Classified Place. The damage east of Gardiner Lane was between 85 and 90 mph. ||The tornado crossed Bishop Lane before causing roof damage to the Jefferson County Public Schools' Van Hoose Center. Wind speeds were estimated to between 80 and 85 mph.

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 21:03 UTC and running to 21:59 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 19:43 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.

Louisville Intl (SDF), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:07 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 2023 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.