EF1 tornado, Siler to Place, Kentucky, May 26, 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

May 26, 2024

Touchdown

1:48 PM EDT (17:48 UTC)

Lifted

1:49 PM EDT (17:49 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

Crop damage

$10,000

County

Knox County

Touchdown point

36.947, -84.050

Lift-off point

36.949, -84.036

Record number

2405261148-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JKL, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Dealership had minor damage to the SW/NW/and NE side, including some panels ripped off the front, a garage door collapse, and removal of flashing. Most of the damage occurred at the lot to the north.
• Small carwash adjacent to gas station had considerable damage. Glass was blown on out multiple sides, including the frames. Another window frame on the west side was pushed in at one end. Building was likely opened on the south end, with a garage door on one end and glass windows lining it. The side room had the doors blown out and off, with insulation falling into the room.
• Flag pole lost flag, parking lot light post down and one bent to the NNE towards US-25. Chevrolet Dealership sign blown out. Concrete fountains at front entrance collapsed to the NNE, gas cap faceplates missing on whole line of ford trucks at front of parking lot. Pieces were found about half a mile away to the ENE. Trucks were moved and shifted NNE over the curb of the parking lot. Multiple vehicles had their back windshield broken, and some had small debris along the driver side window. One car located in front of the building was turned 180 degrees by the wind. Video on social media showed sign being blown out, lofted into the area to the north, and then circling back to the south a couple seconds later.
• Speedy Mart Gas Station received considerable roof damage, most of which was lofted eastward towards the parking lot of the neighboring dealership. This included the loss of an hvac unit on top.

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

On the morning of May 26, a stationary front had set up along the Ohio River just north of the state. During the course of the day, this front slowly lifted northward as a warm front, as a low pressure system began to develop and take shape just west of the state. This added forcing, combined with Kentucky's location in a warm/moist airmass, was enough to spark widespread showers and thunderstorms. WPC noted an outflow boundary on several surface analysis, the presence of which contributed to more shower and thunderstorm development. Most of the storms took place during the afternoon hours on the 26th, however, some storms and damage occurred as early as 3am EDT and as late as 2 and 3am EDT the following night. Amongst the many reports of thunderstorm wind damage, there was also a quick and small rotation that developed in the community of Corbin, which led to a EF-1 tornado, affecting a car dealership and several other businesses/homes.

The National Weather Service surveyed damage in the Siler |community, on the eastern edge of Corbin. They confirmed, with the|help of video, that a quick spin-up tornado occurred, starting in|the NW corner of the Legacy Chevrolet dealership's parking lot, |affecting a gas station and car wash, then moving ENE across |US-25E, into a manufactured shed retail lot. It then crossed into |a tree line and adjacent field, possibly lifting momentarily, |before resuming damage near Poplar Grove Road. It then traveled |between Lynn Camp High School and Lynn Camp Elementary School, |before dissipating. Notable damage included damage to to vehicles |in the Legacy Chevrolet parking lot. Multiple cars and trucks |were pushed forward or to the side. The line of trucks near the |front of the lot were pushed up over the curb and halfway into the |grass. Debris was located along the seal of the driver-side |window of multiple trucks, and quite a few vehicles lost their|back windshields either partially or completely. The gas cap |covers were pulled off of the trucks, with some found at the end of the|tornado path about 0.75 miles away. The neighboring car wash lost|the majority of its windows and incurred damage to all sides of |the building, causing it to be structurally unsound. Across the |street, sheds and barns were moved around and flipped, including a|metal carport being thrown into the tree line to the ENE. No damage|was noted along the neighboring field, however minor roof damage |and a fallen tree occurred just to the ENE, at which point the |path of damage picked back up with multiple trees down along |Poplar Grove Road. At the end of the tornado track, a south-facing|house addition had its roof and ceiling lifted off, landing in |it's entirety to the north near the Lynn Camp Elementary School, |while additional debris was thrown into the east facing lawn of |the school. ||The track of this storm started at Cumberland Falls State Park, |moving east-northeast, resulting in a path of straight-line wind |damage across northern Whitley County with numerous trees felled.|NWS Jackson, KY radar showed a tightening of circulation occurring|across the Corbin area, near where the tornado occurred. Further |wind damage was noted farther ENE of the tornado path in a wooded |area along Middlefork Richland Road and surrounding areas. These |were all indicative of straight-line winds as well.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS JKL issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:44 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:59 UTC and running to 20:00 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 16:40 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 Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:49 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

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 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.