EF1 tornado, Old Weldon, 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

4:41 PM EDT (20:41 UTC)

Lifted

4:42 PM EDT (20:42 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Meade County

Touchdown point

37.955, -86.141

Lift-off point

37.957, -86.137

Record number

2304051441-01

19 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.

• Unhealthy tree snap, nearby road sign bent over same direction of tree snap.
• Correction to former report to show direction of wind
• Carport taken down and 2” galvanized steel twisted. Blown from across the street neighbor house.
• Isolated tree damage near outbuilding roof uplift

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 conducted a storm|survey of damage that occurred just south of Brandenburg near the|intersection of Brandenburg road, Pickett Drive and Cedar line |Court. The tornado first touched down near Pickett Drive where |extensive tree damage was observed. Several cedar trees were |uprooted or snapped between 10 and 20 feet in height. Most of the |tree damage was observed toward the north and northeast |directions, although there was some other tree damage that was |directly facing east suggesting a convergence of winds towards |homes along Picket and Cedar Line Road. Significant roof damage |was also observed along Pickett Drive, including damage to |outbuildings. The tornado then crossed Joe Prather Highway |(Brandenburg Road) toward Cedar Line Court, where more tree damage|and minor damage to homes occurred. Home video shared also showed|a circular pattern to damage that occurred when the storm passed,|further confirming that the damage was caused by a tornado. The |tornado quickly dissipated after home damage was observed along |Cedar Line court as no further damage was observed beyond the |nearby farm field.

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 14:27 UTC and running to 21:00 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.

Fort Knox/Godman (FTK), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:40 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.