Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 2026

EF0 tornado, Boone County, Kentucky, August 11, 2026

This EF0 tornado ran 2.9 miles across Boone County on August 11, 2026, touching down at 3:51 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS ILN's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Hume KY. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The survey

Rating, as surveyed
EF0, preliminary
Date
August 11, 2026
Touchdown
3:51 PM EDT (19:51 UTC)
Lifted
3:54 PM EDT (19:54 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
2.9 miles (4.6 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Boone County
Touchdown point
38.829, -84.714
Lift-off point
38.866, -84.735
Highest wind the damage implies
85 mph
Surveyed by
NWS ILN
The office's name for it
Hume KY
Survey last edited
September 16, 2026
Record number
None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

What the survey found

The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF0 tornado near Hume in Boone County, Kentucky.

The first evidence of damage was on Webb Road, where a tree was downed on a trailer. Additionally, a residence and barn near the western edge of Webb Road both sustained some roof damage. Satellite imagery depicted tree damage along a path moving south-southeast from this location, with the most significant tree damage observed south of Mountain Ballpark. The narrow swath of tree damage extended about a mile south-southeast of US Route 42, where the tornado likely dissipated.

Additional damage was observed in far southern Boone County on Brown Road, and in far western Gallatin County. Damage in these locations was determined to have been from straight-line winds of up to 70 MPH.

The National Weather Service would like to thank the Boone County Emergency Management Agency, Gallatin County Emergency Management, and Kenton County Emergency Management Agency for their coordination and support.

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

The damage survey

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

  • Location approximate. Tree downed on a trailer at the end of Webb Lane.
  • Swath of tree damage from Sentinel-2 imagery begins.
  • Swath of tree damage from Sentinel-2 imagery ends.
  • Tree damage visible at this location via Sentinel 2 satellite imagery. Point entered by GIS Mutual Aid Team.

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

The air that afternoon

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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

7.9 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. August 11, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2026-08-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3952 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 708 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2026-08-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
3952 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2863 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
708 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.4
Supercell composite
13.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

4.1 hours after it, 103 km from the path. August 12, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2026-08-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -355, lifted condensation level 997 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2026-08-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-355 J/kg
Surface CAPE
148 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
997 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cincinnati / N Kentucky Intl (CVG), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:51 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 11, 2026

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

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 117:58 AM EDTEF0Jay, IN0.615
August 117:31 AM CDTEF1Delaware, IA2.4150
August 117:44 AM CDTEF1Delaware, IA1.5100
August 117:45 AM CDTEF1Delaware, IA2.675
August 119:24 AM EDTEF0Clark, OH4.5150
August 118:29 AM CDTEF0Clinton, IA0.350
August 119:30 AM EDTEF1Champaign, OH3.6200
August 119:31 AM EDTEF1Clark, OH9.2200
August 119:33 AM EDTEF2Clark, OH3.5400
August 119:44 AM EDTEF1Madison, OH0.8125
August 119:51 AM EDTEF0Madison, OH1.2100
August 1110:05 AM EDTEF0Franklin, OH2.71502
August 1110:05 AM EDTEF1Franklin, OH1.8100
August 1110:08 AM EDTEF1Franklin, OH1.3150
August 1110:14 AM CDTEF0Kendall, IL5.4150
August 1110:20 AM CDTEF0Grundy, IL1.6250
August 1110:23 AM CDTEF0Grundy, IL2.2150
August 1110:37 AM CDTEF1Will, IL1.5150
August 1110:39 AM CDTEF1Will, IL7.6200
August 1110:41 AM CDTEF1Cook, IL to IN22.5300
August 1110:43 AM CDTEF2Will, IL to IN26.2500
August 1110:55 AM CDTEF1Cook, IL3.3300
August 113:13 PM EDTEF1Butler, OH11.3500
August 113:47 PM EDTEF0Clermont, OH5.2200
August 113:49 PM EDTEF0Clermont, OH5.5150
August 113:56 PM EDTEF0Brown, OH6.4200
August 113:12 PM CDTEF1Piatt, IL22.5800
August 114:16 PM EDTEF1Brown, OH7.1350

What this means

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.

Sources

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.