EF1 tornado, Poverty to Nuckols, Kentucky, April 27, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 27, 2026

Touchdown

12:08 AM CDT (05:08 UTC)

Lifted

12:15 AM CDT (05:15 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.2 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McLean County

Touchdown point

37.509, -87.218

Lift-off point

37.497, -87.099

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PAH

The office's name for it

Livermore, KY

Survey last edited

July 20, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Extensive tree damage along the path of the tornado, including snapped tree trunks and uprooted trees. Two homes suffered significant damage when trees fell onto them. Other homes suffered shingle and fascia damage. A few power poles were damaged. A barn lost part of its roof.

Written by NWS PAH in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

41 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK and NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Two large trees snapped or uprooted facing to the north on the north side of the road
• Several large tree, branches or weaker trees snapped at the trunk in this general location.
• This looks like to be the one Edge of the tornado
• All of the Brown patching on the roof has been repaired today, but those were missing shingles

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

Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms impacted the Quad State region on the 27th. The later rounds of storms began with isolated to scattered storms tracking northeastward late afternoon into the early evening. On the synoptic scale, an upper level jet ejected across the Missouri Valley during the evening with a pronounced mid level wave moving through. The low level jet strengthened into the evening. A surface low was positioned near St Louis during the early evening with a trailing cold front extending southwestward. A broken band of supercells developed along this and eventually congealed into more linear segments as it moved into Southern Illinois and West Kentucky compared to its more discrete structure in Southeast Missouri.||In Northwest Kentucky, during the late evening, MLCAPE remained elevated ahead of the frontal boundary with values of 1000-2000J/kg, along with deep layer shear of 50-60kts, STP of 4-6, and mid-level lapse rates of 8C.||Reports from West Kentucky primarily came from an intensifying line of storms entering the Western Coal Fields area from the northwest. The most significant damage came from a surging portion of the line with an embedded supercell that resulted in two tornadoes: 1. an EF-0 tornado which crossed from northeastern Hopkins County into McLean County, and 2. an EF-1 tornado which caused damage from southeast of Rumsey to north of Livermore in McLean County. A swath of straight-line winds accompanied the first tornadic circulation. The tornadoes damaged numerous trees, some electrical lines and power poles, and a few homes and outbuildings. Several other straight-line wind damage reports were received.

An EF-0 tornado began southwest of Ashbyburg in Hopkins County, and tracked eastward, crossing into McLean County near Jewel City. The tornado dissipated shortly after damaging a few more trees off of KY-138. Estimated peak winds with the McLean County portion of the tornado were 80mph.

An NWS damage survey team found an EF-1 tornado, with peak winds of 95mph, occurred north of Livermore in McLean County. The tornado began near KY-138, causing significant loss of roof paneling to a barn. As it traveled a winding path generally eastward, extensive tree damage occurred along the path, including snapped tree trunks and uprooted trees. Two homes suffered significant damage when trees fell onto them. Other homes suffered shingle and fascia damage, and one had a detached garage collapse. A few power poles were damaged. The tornado lifted near the Ohio County line after damaging tree branches on Logsdon Ln.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:49 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:51 UTC and running to 07:39 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 00:59 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), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:05 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 2026 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

28 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.