EF2 tornado, Belknap Beach to Bonham, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 2, 2024

Touchdown

5:46 PM EDT (21:46 UTC)

Lifted

5:53 PM EDT (21:53 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.6 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Oldham County

Touchdown point

38.386, -85.498

Lift-off point

38.387, -85.400

Record number

2404021546-01

181 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

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

As a surface low cut across Missouri and Illinois, its eastward stretching warm front moved north across central Indiana while its cold front moved east towards the Lower Ohio Valley. This placed central Kentucky in the warm sector, where 3 separate lines of convection moved through during the day. The first line of storms generating from an early morning outflow boundary dropped southeast through the area. This produced six tornadoes, mainly through the Bluegrass region. The second line, moving west to east, just produced some passing showers and thunderstorms. The third line, just ahead of the cold front, moved through during the evening hours. This produced three more tornadoes along the Interstate 71 corridor. One of these tornadoes began in Clark County, Indiana before crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky.

The National Weather Service in Louisville surveyed storm damage in southeast Clark County IN, through far northeast Jefferson KY, and into western Oldham County. Specifically the tornado traveled just southeast of the Clark County Indiana Airport, east through Utica, crossing the Ohio River into Prospect, and lifting just east of the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course in Oldham County. The tornado was its strongest in Jefferson County, KY where it was an EF2 with 120 mph winds and 450 yards wide.||Oldham County... The tornado exited Jefferson County and continued east over the Harrods Creek Dam and into the Hidden Creek neighborhood. Many trees were uprooted, barns took damage to the overhead doors and sheet metal, and homes incurred some roof damage. The damage indicated that the tornado weakened to a lower end EF1, with a maximum wind of 90 mph, and a width of 200 yards. ||The tornado continued to weaken as it moved parallel to Sleepy Hollow Road. Trees along this road and over the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course were uprooted or topped and barns incurred various structural damage. The damage indicated that the tornado was an EF0, with maximum winds of 80 mph and width of 125 yards. ||The tornado lifted along Highway 329 as the parent storm occluded and formed a new tornado to the north.

The National Weather Service in Louisville surveyed storm damage north of Buckner, Kentucky near New Cut Road. The team followed the concentrated storm damage into the Heather Ridge and Grand Villa neighborhoods, and east of Oldham County High School.||The tornado touched down on Halls Hill Road north of New Cut Road, where a few trees were leaning on power lines. This damage was a result of an EF0 tornado with a wind speed of 70 mph.||From Halls Hill Road, the tornado moved east into the Heather Ridge neighborhood. The west half of the neighborhood incurred EF1 95 mph winds, which led to many uprooted or topped trees and minor roof damage. At this point, the tornado strengthened to an EF2 with 115 mph winds while moving into the eastern half of the |neighborhood. Garage doors were inverted or blown off their track, windows were blown out, large portions of roof structures were compromised, mud and insulation were spread all over cars and homes, wood from roof structures was impaled into the ground several feet, and trees were uprooted or snapped. One homeowner was able to catch the tornado with his home security system. Another homeowner explained the terrifying sound of the wind as they took shelter in their basement. ||From the Heather Ridge neighborhood, the tornado continued into the Grand Villa neighborhood where it weakened to an EF1 tornado with 100 mph winds. In this neighborhood, numerous trees were uprooted and one home had an inverted garage door. ||The tornado then continued over Oldham County High School where the roof HVAC system was blown to the ground and a street light was bent. Across the street, a metal warehouse took some roof damage and the garage doors were inverted. At this point, the tornado was an EF1 at 90 mph. ||East of the high school, the tornado weakened to an EF0 at 80 mph where a church took damage to the steeple and large limbs were snapped. A large open faced metal RV storage building took damage to the roof and walls. ||The tornado then weakened as it crossed I-71, leading to some topped trees in the interstate median. The tornado lifted on the southeast side of the interstate.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

11 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:35 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:49 UTC and running to 00:17 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 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 20:01 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.

Jefferson (JVY), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:47 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.