EF1 tornado, St Joseph to Rome, Kentucky, May 8, 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 8, 2024

Touchdown

9:49 PM CDT (02:49 UTC)

Lifted

9:50 PM CDT (02:50 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Daviess County

Touchdown point

37.729, -87.182

Lift-off point

37.720, -87.171

Record number

2405082049-01

37 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Carport tossed into tree line next to house.

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

A major outbreak of severe weather occurred on the 8th for the Quad State region. On the synoptic scale, a longwave trough was centered across the Rockies with deep-layer southwesterly flow from the Southern Plains to the Ohio Valley. A 110 kt upper jet extended from northern KS to IA while a 60 kt mid-level jet was positioned across northern MZ into IA. Surface low pressure near the MZ/KS border lifted to St. Louis around 12am CST on the 9th. A warm frontal boundary stretched across the Quad State, with a cold front extending southward from the surface low. ||The environment became unstable by early afternoon, especially in far Western Kentucky, with MLCAPE of 2000-3000 J/kg. Deep-layer shear was on the order of 55-65 kts, though low-level shear was 15 kts, increasing to 20 kts later in the day. SRH was around 100-2000 m2/s2 with higher values north towards Clarksville, TN. STP values were 2-3 due to deep-layer shear and instability. Supercell activity was more prominent during the afternoon in Western Kentucky with lapse rates of 6.5-7 C/km aiding with hail production.||For Southwest Kentucky, a sub-severe line of storms moved through with a cold front during the overnight hours from the 7th-8th. The front reversed and lifted northward during the morning, producing thunderstorm wind damage in the Purchase area, particularly in and around Calvert City. Supercell development occurred during the afternoon hours with widespread hail and thunderstorm wind damage. An EF-U tornado was identified in eastern McCracken County. Several counties were hit multiple times over the course of the afternoon into the evening as lines of storms entered Northwest Kentucky from Southern Illinois. Daviess County experienced widespread significant wind damage in and west of Owensboro between 2030-2100CST, including 3 tornadoes (2 EF-0 and 1 EF-1). A powerful outflow boundary from the Daviess County storms pushed through Livermore producing a mile wide swath of significant wind damage. A final line of thunderstorms pushed through Western Kentucky late evening past midnight, with limited severe weather. ||Torrential rainfall produced flooding impacts across Western Kentucky. A northern high rain total swath extended from Union County to southern Daviess/McLean Counties with 3-5 inches of rain. Being the location where the cold front stalled out and reversed, early morning rainfall totals were already elevated from Marshall/Calloway County to Todd County and further south in Tennessee. Heavy rains from afternoon supercells increased flooding issues, including washing out part of a road in Trigg County, while continued heavy rainfall late evening into the overnight hours left numerous roads flooded in Trigg County and in Hopkinsville. Rainfall totals were 5-8 inches in portions of Marshall and Trigg Counties and southernmost portions of Christian and Todd Counties. Both the Bypass and 68/80 gages on the South Fork of the Little River in Hopkinsville reached minor flood, and significant rainfall totals on the Green River resulted in Paradise reaching moderate flood stage a couple days later.

An EF-0 tornado touched down 2 miles northwest of St. Joseph in western Daviess County, traveled eastward 2.66 miles, and lifted 1 mile northeast of St. Joseph. Numerous large tree limbs were downed along the damage path. A few hog barns suffered roof damage. One house had a small area of shingles removed. The estimated peak wind was 80 mph and the maximum path width was 50 yards.

An EF-0 tornado touched down 3 miles west-northwest of West Louisville in western Daviess County, traveled 3.11 miles east-southeast, and lifted at West Louisville. A few large barns and outbuildings had portions of their roofs removed with one outbuilding also losing a portion of an exterior wall. A few wooden power poles were damaged or leaning slightly. A carport was lifted and tossed into the top of a nearby tree. Numerous large tree limbs were downed along the damage path, and one tree in very soggy soil was uprooted. The estimated peak wind was 85 mph and the maximum path width was 300 yards.

An EF-1 tornado touched down briefly just north of Rome, KY. One farm outbuilding was severely damaged, with heavy machinery tossed or pushed into nearby open fields. A grain bin and outbuildings were also damaged. Two large trees were snapped at the base, and several large limbs were downed. The estimated peak wind was 95 mph. The path length was under one mile and the maximum path width was 100 yards.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:43 UTC and running to 06:15 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:42 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.

Owensboro/Daviess (OWB), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:46 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

52 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.