EF1 tornado, Heflin to Jingo, 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

12:30 AM CDT (05:30 UTC)

Lifted

12:34 AM CDT (05:34 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

110 yards (101 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Ohio County

Touchdown point

37.477, -86.881

Lift-off point

37.463, -86.852

Highest wind the damage implies

105 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LMK

Survey last edited

April 30, 2026

Record number

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

The EF-1 tornado touched down briefly near the Rough River. It intensified as it crossed Highway 69,

doing significant tree damage and some minor structural damage to homes along Highway 69. The tornado

continued to the southeast where it ripped much of the roof of a home along Mill Run Lane, before

lifting just before the Hartford, KY Airport.

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

31 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.

• 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
• Power lines are down. Looks like there are two new poles in this location.

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

On April 27th, as a low pressure system moved east towards the Lower Ohio Valley, the system's warm front brought a line of convection east along the Ohio River and Interstate 64. This produced widespread wind damage with limited flash flooding across north central Kentucky. On April 28th, the system's cold front dropped southeast, bringing a line of thunderstorms through central Kentucky. This produced additional wind damage and multiple small tornadoes.

A tornado briefly touched down and affected all trees in sparsely populated locations of western Ohio County. The tornado touched down just south of Locks Road and did tree damage along a nearly 2 mile track through the Rough River Valley.

The EF-1 tornado touched down briefly near the Rough River. It intensified as it crossed Highway 69, doing significant tree damage and some minor structural damage to homes along Highway 69. The tornado continued to the southeast where it ripped much of the roof of a home along Mill Run Lane, before lifting just before the Hartford, KY Airport.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:04 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 04:37 UTC and running to 07:14 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, 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), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:28 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.