EF1 tornado, Greenup to Aid, Kentucky, April 2, 2024

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 2, 2024

Touchdown

9:12 AM CDT (14:12 UTC)

Lifted

9:20 AM CDT (14:20 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$2.1 million

Counties

Greenup and Lawrence counties

Touchdown point

38.571, -82.839

Lift-off point

38.548, -82.696

Record number

2404020812-01

36 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Significant loss of roofing noted at the Laidback Bar and Grille. Significant tree damage with several travel trailers rolled over and destroyed.
• Drone snapshot shows trees on edges of track with convergence.
• Limbs snapped off with debris generally west of the parent tree. Back wall of lumber storage shed blown out to the east.
• Metal roofing panels peeled from building. Wall of block building was shifted some. Large hardwood tree with trunk decay evident also fell onto a structure.

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

A strong low pressure system and accompanying frontal boundary set forth multiple rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms from April 2nd to the 3rd. This first came in the form of an intense squall line on the morning of the 2nd, which raced through eastern Kentucky and produced straight-line wind damage and brief tornadoes. ||The strongest tornado surveyed in the aftermath of storms was found in Boyd County, with structure damage indicative of an EF2 tornado and maximum winds of up to 120 miles per hour. Another tornado was observed near the town of Westwood, where a single-wide trailer was flipped over and significant damage was noted of homes and structures. Numerous areas of tree and power line damage were also seen across northeast Kentucky due to damaging wind gusts associated with the squall line.||In addition to wind and tornado damage, heavy downpours associated with rounds of storms led to flooding across portions of northeast Kentucky on April 3rd. Several roads were closed during this time due to high water issues as adjacent creeks and streams rose out of their banks. In the span of these two days, between 3 to 5 inches of rain had fallen along the Ohio River basin from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, which eventually flowed down the river into Kentucky. The river gauge at Ashland eventually rose above its flood stage on April 6th and returned into its banks the next day as the water continued to flow downstream.

Multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms moved across parts of Ohio at the start of the month of April. An intense squall line raced through portions of southeast Ohio on the late morning of April 2nd, which spawned four tornadoes and caused numerous other locations to observe straight-line wind damage. Additional severe thunderstorms occurred late in the afternoon and into the evening of April 2nd, producing additional tornadoes and wind damage centered within southern and eastern Ohio. ||The multiple rounds of rain produced numerous instances of flash flooding around Ohio. Widespread rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches had fallen across southern and eastern Ohio, with localized amounts near 6 inches observed. Runoff from this rainfall, coupled with heavy rain occurring in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, caused moderate to major flooding along the Ohio River. Moderate flooding was observed first along the lower Muskingum River, with both McConnellsville and Beverly having surpassed their respective moderate flood stage. Drainage into the Ohio River eventually sent the river into flood on April 4th from north to south, with subsequent crests occurring into April 5th. Locations along the upper reaches experienced moderate flooding. In addition, Marietta exceeded major flood stage. Overall impacts were significant with numerous roads and structures observing flooding along the West Virginia side of the river.

A broken path of damage was noted on the Kentucky side of the tornado track, beginning at the Riverview Cemetery west of Greenup. Additional damage occurred on Seaton Avenue near South 5th Street and in the Greenup Fairgrounds, where a few buildings suffered roof damage and a large tree fell onto another building. The tornado then likely tracked along the Ohio River before intersecting land again on the Kentucky side and causing roof and tree damage to several homes along Calumet Drive.

A tornado that began in Greenup County, Kentucky finally crossed the Ohio River and impacted a campground on the Ohio side at Hanging Rock. More significant damage was noted here as several travel trailers were overturned, the roof was blown off of the Laidback Bar, and significant tree damage was noted in the adjacent camping area. Drone footage showed campers tossed in a counter-clockwise motion and some convergence in the tree damage. A salt storage dome was also destroyed in this area, causing significant injury to an employee.||The tornado continued to track eastward, damaging a few homes and damaging the roof and ballfields at Ironton Middle School. The tornado weakened but continued to cause some sporadic damage to homes all the way to the Storms Creek Flood Wall.

An EF1 tornado began near Aid on Oak Ridge Road and traveled northeastward through mostly pastureland, knocking down a few trees on the north edge of the path and where it crossed Symmes Creek. The tornado continued northeast, blowing the roof off of two homes and another structure, as well as rolled a travel trailer near where it crossed State Route 141. The last noted damage was some tin panels that were blown upward on a barn roof shortly after the tornado crossed State Route 141. Some minor damage, not likely associated with the tornado occurred at the Symmes Valley High School.||An EMS employee stationed at the nearby Lawrence County EMS Station 5 witnessed the tornado as it traveled across the field in front of the station.

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 12:32 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.

Ashland (DWU), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:13 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 2024 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

68 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 69 of them

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.