EF1 tornado, Chaplin to Tatham Spgs, 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

8:50 AM EDT (12:50 UTC)

Lifted

8:56 AM EDT (12:56 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.1 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Washington and Nelson counties

Touchdown point

37.934, -85.220

Lift-off point

37.885, -85.154

Record number

2404020650-01

35 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 95 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 conducted a storm damage assessment survey in Nelson County from the storms mid morning, April 2. The tornado touched down between Maude Cooksey Lane and Hagan Lane, just northwest of Chaplin, in northeast Nelson County. Drone photography and a resident showed extensive tree damage in the|middle of a farmers field near several farmers ponds. Winds speeds were around 80 mph with a width of 75 yards. The tornado increased in speed to EF1 90 mph all along Hahn Ridge Road. 10 Barns had extensive roof damage, with debris spread to the|east through southerly directions and parts of the barn were thrown up to a half a mile downwind. The width increased to 125 yards. ||There was extensive tree damage along with significant structural damage to the Barndominium at KY 62 and Hahn Ridge Road on the north side of 62. This large barn garage structure, lost its entire side garage and was thrown several hundred yards to the east southeast. There were significant 2 by 4 and 2 by 8 boards impairments up to 300 yards downwind. Winds increased to EF1 95 mph with a width of 125 mph. There were trees uprooted and topped along Prather Ridge Road as the tornado continued to move to the east southeast. The tornado was consistently around 85 mph, EF0, with a width of 125 yards. There was uplift of two outbuildings along love Ridge Road, along with uprooted and topped trees. Winds speeds were around 85 mph with a width of |100 yards. The tornado was weakening as it crossed Kentucky 555 and the Chaplain River into Washington County. The EF1 tornado traveled a total of 5.02 miles before lifting just across the Washington County line.

As the tornado was exiting Nelson County and entering Washington County, it was weakening as it crossed Kentucky 555 and the Chaplain River. There were a few top trees and wind speeds had decreased to 75 mph with a width of 60 yards before the tornado lifted. This EF1 tornado traveled a total of 5.02 miles from where it began near Maude Cooksey Lane and Hagan Lane in Nelson County to where it ended in Washington County.

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

NWS Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 1, 7:52 PM EDT, 12 hours 58 minutes earlier.

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Bardstown - Samuels Field (BRY), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:52 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.

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.