EF1 tornado, Sirocco to Doretts Run, Kentucky, March 30, 2025

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

March 30, 2025

Touchdown

9:35 PM EDT (01:35 UTC)

Lifted

9:44 PM EDT (01:44 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

7.2 miles (11.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Meade and Hardin counties

Touchdown point

37.844, -86.076

Lift-off point

37.850, -85.945

Record number

2503301935-02

80 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 105 mph.

• Couple of uprooted trees. Structure nearby no damage
• Lifted up part of road. Power lines drooping here.
• Some trees and power lines here slight home roof dmg
• Camper slightly moved off blocks. Roof dmg. Several trees snapped here.

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

On March 30th, a surface low along with the system's cold front dropped southeast from eastern Iowa through southern Indiana and central Kentucky. This resulted in a northeast to southwest oriented line of convection ahead of the front. The added shear from the surface low resulted in organized storms that produced damaging winds and 5 tornadoes throughout north central Kentucky. Wind damage continued farther east into the Bluegrass region, near Lexington.

The National Weather Service surveyed a long-track EF-1 tornado that moved from Midway through the north side of Fort Knox and then ended just west of the Clermont exit on I-65. Numerous trees were downed or snapped along the damage path, which ran a little over 30 miles and was on the ground a little over 30 minutes. ||The most notable damage along the path in Meade County was at several properties along D E Brown Road, Otter Creek Park, and YMCA Camp Piomingo.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Meade and Hardin County, near the communities of Flaherty and Radcliff, and determined an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph occurred the evening of March 30th, 2025. The tornado had a path length of 7.21 miles and a width of 50 yards. ||The first damage to be observed was just south of Flaherty Elementary school to a farm outbuilding where major roof loss was observed. A nearby residence also had roof damage occur. The tornado continued across Flaherty Road and Joe Prather Highway |damaging several trees along the way near Rabbit Run Road. The tornado continued across rural sections of Meade County before striking a residence and a garage. The roof lifted over the house and landed about 100 yards away. Siding and tree damage indicated several different directions, indicative of rotation. ||The tornado continued along Rogers Lake Road with several trees in different directions, continuing to indicate the rotational damage of the tornado. The damage continued into Hardin County.

The National Weather Service surveyed a long-track EF-1 tornado that moved from Midway through the north side of Fort Knox and then ended just west of the Clermont exit on I-65. Numerous trees were downed or snapped along the damage path, which ran a little over 30 miles and was on the ground a little over 30 minutes. ||The most notable damage in Hardin County was a few snapped trees along Range Road in Fort Knox.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Meade and Hardin County, near the communities of Flaherty and Radcliff, and determined an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph occurred the evening of March 30th, 2025. The tornado had a path length of 7.21 miles and a width of 50 yards. ||After the tornado exited Meade County, the damage continued in neighborhoods in west Radcliff along Red Hill Road where isolated tree damage, both uproots and snaps, were observed. The last observable damage was near US Highway 31 where isolated tree damage was observed near Walmart in Radcliff.

The National Weather Service surveyed a long-track EF-1 tornado that moved from Midway through the north side of Fort Knox and then ended just west of the Clermont exit on I-65. Numerous trees were downed or snapped along the damage path, which ran a little over 30 miles and was on the ground a little over 30 minutes.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:23 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:42 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:46 UTC and running to 02:17 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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 Louisville radar (KLVX), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:34 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 2025 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.