EF0 tornado, Joyes, Kentucky, May 7, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

May 7, 2023

Touchdown

9:25 AM EDT (13:25 UTC)

Lifted

9:26 AM EDT (13:26 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Shelby County

Touchdown point

38.205, -85.267

Lift-off point

38.200, -85.258

Record number

2305070725-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• Video of a power flash at a sub station
• Picture of debris thrown on the railroad tracks

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

During the late morning and afternoon hours on May 7th, an occasionally broken line of strong-to-severe thunderstorms moved from north to south across central Kentucky. These storms were not associated with any low-level front; however, they were the continuation of convection which fired during the late evening hours on May 6th over northern Illinois and had moved south-southeastward along with a mid-level shortwave disturbance transiting along the top edge of larger scale ridging. Ahead of the line of storms, a moderately unstable environment existed. Initially, around 500 J/kg MLCAPE was present as storms approached the Interstate 64 corridor; this increased to between 1000-2000 J/kg later in the day across south central Kentucky as the atmosphere had more time to destabilize. Wind shear was modest at best, but was sufficient to keep storms going across the region. Most portions of the line of storms were sub-severe, but a few isolated areas of severe winds, hail, and one tornado occurred as the line moved through central Kentucky.

A Valero gas station sign was pushed to the east and towards Highway 55 (Taylorsville Road), with some of the sign damage thrown across Highway 55 onto Pearce Industrial Road. The next damage was at the Black and Decker plant off of Harry Long Road. There was significant roofing damage across several portions of the roof to be lifted and thrown 30-40 yards. All of the debris from the roof was pushed to the east-southeast. | There were 3 business and home videos that all faced toward the Black and Decker warehouse, where you can definitely see a narrow funnel in contact with the ground. This was key to this tornado rating as drone photography showed almost no damage between the Valero Gas Station and B & D roof structure. There was not a single tree |snapped or twisted and a large cell tower right in its path had no damage. Based on the videos and the damage to the B & D roofing structure, the survey team came up with a EF0 75 mph rating, with a width of 30 yards. | The survey team drove across several intersecting roads within a two mile radius along old Finchville Road over to Zaring Mill Road and found no other damage.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:49 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), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:27 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

12 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.