EF1 tornado, Danby to Russellville, Kentucky, May 16, 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

May 16, 2025

Touchdown

9:55 PM CDT (02:55 UTC)

Lifted

9:57 PM CDT (02:57 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Logan County

Touchdown point

36.872, -86.911

Lift-off point

36.866, -86.865

Record number

2505162055-01

15 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 100 mph.

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

A strong storm system moved across the central and eastern United States from May 16th into May 17th, producing a significant severe weather event across the Mississippi and Ohio Valley. An unusually deep closed upper low slowly moved across the upper Midwest on the 16th, with strong mid- and upper-level southwest flow overspreading the Mississippi and Ohio Valley. The upper low pressure system brought a surface cold front into the Mississippi Valley by the morning of May 16th, with the front stalling out over the region until clearing to the east by the morning hours of May 17th. Ahead of the cold front, a typically unstable late spring air mass was present, with temperatures in the 80s and dewpoint temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s. The combination of strong wind shear for mid-May and a moist, unstable environment set the stage for severe weather across central Kentucky and southern Indiana.||During the early morning hours on May 16th, discrete cells, some supercellular, began to develop along the Ohio River and across central Kentucky. These cells were assisted by a 35 knot southwesterly low-level jet, which provided enough instability via low-level moisture transport for convection to initiate. Most of the morning convection was elevated, with between 2000-3000 J/kg of most unstable parcel CAPE present above a relatively stable boundary layer. Given the strong flow aloft, effective bulk shear was strong, around 55-60 kt, supporting organized multicell and supercell clusters. For the first wave of storms which moved across central Kentucky during the morning hours, large hail was the primary severe threat, with several reports of quarter to ping pong ball sized hail reported in severe storms. By later in the morning, isolated wind damage was also observed with severe storms across south central Kentucky. The first wave of storms continued until around midday, with a lull in activity occurring through the late afternoon hours.||During the early and mid-afternoon hours, breaks in cloud cover allowed for additional destabilization to occur, with temperatures warming into the low 80s and dewpoint temperatures in the low 70s ahead of the second wave of severe storms. This would support between 3500-4500 J/kg of surface-based CAPE across central Kentucky and extending into southern Indiana, setting up quite an unstable environment. Wind shear values were also extremely high ahead of the second wave of storms, with 60-70 knots of effective bulk shear noted in mesoanalysis data. Strong low-level wind shear and helicity were also present, with the parameter space supporting significant threats from damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes. The second wave of storms began as a broken line of supercells across Missouri, which moved into western and central Kentucky during the early evening hours. A dominant lead supercell moved across south central Kentucky, producing significant wind damage and up to baseball sized hail as it tracked from Logan and Butler County across to Russell County. As the supercell moved across Russell County, rotation aloft within the cell translated to the ground, with the storm producing a strong tornado which produced up to EF3 damage in eastern Russell County before tracking for nearly 60 miles across southeastern Kentucky, with maximum damage of EF4 strength near London. Additional supercells farther to the north also produced isolated wind damage and hail. By the late evening hours, supercells across western Kentucky and southern Illinois merged into a squall line as it moved over central Kentucky, producing larger swaths of wind damage with several reports of over 60 mph winds. A spin-up tornado was also observed with this line over Logan County, producing EF1 damage. The line of severe storms finally pushed into eastern Kentucky during the early morning hours on May 17th, bringing an end to the severe weather threat.

At approximately 9:55 PM CDT on May 16, 2025, a|tornado touched down on Lewisburg Rd, just to the east of US|Highway 431. The tornado touched down as an EF-0, producing minor|tree damage to a residence on Lewisburg Road. It continued eastward|rapidly, crossing Hidden Valley Road and following nearly parallel|to Cates Bypass Road. It produced EF-0 damage to an outdoor shed|near a single residence on Newtown Road, tossing debris into a|field to the east. The tornado began to strengthen as it churned|toward W H Brown Road, which is where EF-1 damage was observed. The|tornado damaged a small metal garage structure, completely|lifting the entire roof off of the structure. As the tornado|continued eastward, it caused minor shingle damage to a single|home on W H Brown Road. Another 150 yards to the east, the tornado|caused more roof damage to a farm building, peeling off some|metal roof panels and scattering them across a field to the north|and east. The EF-1 tornado slightly strengthened as it crossed|the field, with an estimated maximum width of 75 yards as it tore|through another residence at the end of W H Brown Road. The tornado|reached its peak strength at this location and caused the|collapse of the exterior walls of a large farm building,|resulting in the structure falling in on itself. Next to the|collapsed structure, a small open-sided structure with a roof|slid on the ground an estimated 40 feet to the northeast from its|original spot. Another small farm structure next to the collapsed|building was completely destroyed as the tornado spun into the|field, but recent street view imagery revealed this structure was|once open on 3 sides, and appeared to be some sort of car port.|After spinning through the field, the tornado cut through a tree|line and crossed Town Branch creek. The tornado weakened to EF-|0 strength as it crossed a field and approached Concord Road. It|continued as an EF-0 as it crossed Morgantown Road near US Highway|68. Additional tree damage was observed just east of Morgantown|Road, but the tornado lifted shortly afterwards in a field between|the two major roadways.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:54 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:09 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:00 UTC and running to 04:03 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 00:47 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.

Springfield (M91), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:55 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

26 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.