EF3 Eddyville tornado, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 26, 2024

Touchdown

8:01 PM CDT (01:01 UTC)

Lifted

9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)

On the ground

74 minutes

Path length

34.1 miles (54.9 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

21

Property damage

$3.4 million

Counties

Lyon, Caldwell and Hopkins counties

Touchdown point

37.110, -88.069

Lift-off point

37.259, -87.481

Record number

2405261901-01

124 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• Numerous trees with trunks snapped on the west side of Highway 641
• Uprooted tree already cleaned up, but it was down across the driveway facing to the north east
• There are several uploaded trees in this immediate area
• Several upper trees facing mainly to the north

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

The second major severe weather outbreak for the month occurred on the 26th for the Quad State region. On the synoptic scale, a shortwave trough centered in the middle of the country with a 60 kt mid-level jet moved across northern Arkansas. A weak surface low was moving into SE Missouri during the morning with a secondary low located further northwest. A warm frontal boundary was draped across our area. A bowing line progressed east across SE Missouri into W Kentucky and far S Illinois between 0500-1000CST, followed by a mostly sub-severe second line that exited the region by 1300CST. The environment recovered producing fuel for more severe storms, starting with supercells 1800-2100CST with a line of storms moving east-southeastward across the entire Quad State after 1900CST, crossing through by midnight. Across the Quad State, this event produced the record for most tornado track miles in a single day in office history, along with the second most warnings issued in a day (just behind the May 8, 2024 event). Widespread straight-line wind and tornado damage resulted in over 100,000 customers without power across the Quad State.||For the morning, MLCAPE values at 0700CST were 1000-2000 J/kg in W Kentucky. Effective bulk shear was 30-40 kts with STP around 1, which increased in the following hours. Precipitable water was 1.5-1.8 inches, allowing for torrential rainfall rates.||The morning round of storms produced widespread destructive straight-line wind damage leading to numerous power outages across the southernmost portions of W Kentucky from the Jackson Purchase Area to the Southern Pennyrile. Two EF-1 tornadoes occurred in Calloway County, with one of them tracking 22 miles. One person was injured when thunderstorm winds caused a tree to fall on his vehicle on Rockwood Rd in Calloway County. Two more tornadoes formed in Trigg County, one an EF-1, and an EF-2 that produced its strongest damage south of Hopkinsville in Christian County. Another EF-1 tornado formed northwest of Bremen and tracked northeastward to Island in McLean County. Torrential rainfall rates led to a few reports of flash flooding in Western Kentucky during the morning to early afternoon hours. ||Heading into the evening, MLCAPE values at 1800CST were 2000-3500 J/kg in W Kentucky. For W Kentucky, effective bulk shear rose to 45-55 kts, with SRH around 200-400 m2/s2 and STP of 2-4. 0-1 km shear was 20-30 kts. Mid-level lapse rates were 7-7.5 C/km. DCAPE of 1100-1400 J/kg provided ample opportunity for downburst winds.||Late afternoon to early evening supercells produced hail reports and a long-track EF-3 tornado that began in Lyon County, then continued east-northeastward through Caldwell and Hopkins Counties. Severe structural damage occurred between Dawson Springs and Charleston and at least one family in Barnsley lost their home for the second time with the previous instance being the historic December 10, 2021 tornado. 21 people were injured (4 in Caldwell, 17 in Hopkins) while two people lost their lives, one in Hopkins County from the tornado (48f, direct), and one in Caldwell County due to a heart attack while cleaning up tornado debris (54m, indirect). The cold front swept through, producing more straight-line wind damage and flash flooding. As the line caught up to the supercell tornado, the storm became much more muddled, with an EF-1 tornado taking shape in Muhlenberg County tracking southeastward through Beech Creek and Beechmont, and continuing as a long track tornado reaching areas north of Bowling Green. Late night power outages were widespread along the tornado tracks in Lyon, Hopkins, Caldwell, and Muhlenberg Counties, which other counties with around half the county without power included Calloway, Trigg, Christian, and Todd Counties. Rainfall amounts of 2.5 to 4 inches were commonplace, with locally higher totals in southern Trigg and Christian Counties. Brief minor flooding occurred for the third time this month on part of the S. Fork Little River near Hopkinsville.

An EF-3 tornado (peak of EF-2 in Lyon County) began northeast of Eddyville on the west side of US-641N. The tornado tracked northeastward, strengthening rapidly and producing EF-2 damage off of Beck Rd. The tornado crossed into Caldwell County while collapsing a barn just north of Pleasant Valley Rd. Peak estimated winds for the Lyon County portion of the tornado were 115 mph.

An EF-3 tornado (max of EF-2 in Caldwell County) began northeast of Eddyville in Lyon County before crossing into Caldwell County near Pleasant Valley Rd. The tornado tracked east-northeastward through the entirety of Caldwell County, crossing over into Hopkins County north of I-69 and south of Young Cemetery Rd. The tornado briefly weakened northwest of Princeton. It then strengthened producing EF-2 damage north of Princeton near KY-293 N, blowing apart a manufactured home. Additional structures, trees, and power lines were damaged in Caldwell County. For Caldwell County, 4 people were injured and one person (54m, indirect) suffered a heart attack while cleaning up debris the following day, passing away as a result. Peak estimated winds with the Caldwell County portion of the tornado were 130 mph.

An EF-3 tornado, which began northeast of Eddyville in Lyon County, crossed through the entirety of Caldwell County, then entered Hopkins County east of White School Rd. The tornado intensified and widened to its peak width of 700 yds destroying several mobile homes and wood and brick frame structures as it approached and moved just south of the Charleston community in western Hopkins County. It continued eastward just north of I-69 destroying more mobile homes and at least one more permanent residence. Two mobile homes were destroyed just north of Morton's Gap with a vehicle also flipped before the path abruptly ended just west of I-69. Widespread significant tree damage was noted along the path. A few dozen buildings were either destroyed or sustained major damage along the path with another few dozen structures sustaining damage. In Hopkins County, 17 people were injured, with 1 person (48f, direct) north of Dawson Springs dying as a result of the tornado. Peak winds with this tornado were estimated at 160 mph.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:35 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:59 UTC and running to 03:54 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 00:57 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 Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:58 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.