EF0 tornado, Peaks Mill, Kentucky, May 3, 2025

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

May 3, 2025

Touchdown

10:54 AM EDT (14:54 UTC)

Lifted

10:58 AM EDT (14:58 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

38.289, -84.825

Lift-off point

38.296, -84.809

Record number

2505030854-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

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

A cold front moved into the mid-Mississippi Valley during the morning of May 2nd, with a line of showers and thunderstorms developing ahead of the front. Within the warm, humid air mass ahead of the front, temperatures warmed into the upper 70s by the early afternoon hours, allowing for 1500-2000 J/kg of MLCAPE to develop. Wind shear was fairly modest for the time of year, with between 25 and 30 kt of effective bulk shear present. As the line of storms moved across central Kentucky, a couple bowing segments developed, producing scattered wind damage along the Ohio River. An isolated stronger cell across south central Kentucky produced severe hail up to golf ball size, in addition to gusty winds.||The following morning on May 3rd, the cold front was still slowly pushing east across the area. While mostly light to moderate rain showers were present, one stronger cell was able to produce a brief EF0 tornado over Franklin County.

An NWS Survey confirmed a non-supercell EF0 tornado, with maximum|winds of 80 mph and a path length of approximately 1 mile, occurred near Peaks Mill|on the morning of Saturday, May 3rd. The tornado was on the |ground for about 4 minutes and had a peak width of approximately 30 |yards.||Damage was first observed near John Branch creek near Sullivan |Lane, and the tornado continued across John Branch creek and |followed Sullivan Lane to the northeast. Some large tree branch |damage occurred and some roofing and siding damage to barns and |nearby residences. The tornado continued across Elkhorn creek and|continued to produce damage to barn roofing and trees. The |tornado did some minor damage to a barn across Peaks Mill Road |before lifting. Tree branch damage and uproot damage from drone |footage showed a clear convergence signature along Sullivan Lane.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:50 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), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:54 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

7 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.