The National Weather Service has completed the surveys of six tornadoes that touched down in the WSLM LISTENING AREA the night of April 2nd into the morning of April 3rd, including one in Washington County, Lawrence County and New Albany, Louisville, Nelson and Taylor Counties.
On the night of April 2nd, a cold front approached the lower Ohio Valley.
Along and ahead of the cold front, numerous supercells developed over southern Illinois and western Kentucky.
These storms tracked eastward and occasionally grew upscale into a QLCS with bowing segments.
Storms lasted all night and into the morning hours, as the cold front began to stall over the lower Ohio Valley.
These storms left behind a wake of damage in many counties in southern Indiana and central Kentucky.
Over the next few days, waves of showers and storms rode along the cold front bringing lots of rain which lead to widespread flash and areal flooding. Showers and storms came through daily, until the evening of April 6th.
Later, this flooding turned into historic and near-record breaking river flooding along many river basins.
Here are the three local tornadoes that have been confirmed along with their stats:
Washington/Scott County
On April 2, a tornado did damage near South Boston. This one was the longest tracked tornado in our area that night, being on the ground for 15.76 miles.
It peaked at EF-2 strength with 115mph winds and 600 yards wide.
The NWS stated “The worst damage was near Conway Community Church near South Boston. The church had significant roof damage, with many gravestones in the adjacent cemetery knocked over. Just west of this location and next to the water tower, a single wide mobile home was rolled about 75 yards north and completely destroyed. A chest freezer was picked up from here and thrown 100 yards northeast into the cemetery. A conservative estimate of the wind speed here is 115 mph.”
Lawrence County
An EF-0 was confirmed in Lawrence County on April 2, peaking at 80mph winds near the Heltonville, IN area. It was a very brief tornado and was only on the ground for 0.06 miles and was only 20 yards wide.
It was roughly on the ground only for 1 minute or less.
The NWS stated “A brief tornado damaged a pole barn near the intersection of State Route 446 and Mundell Church Road. The south facing wall of the pole barn was the only wall left standing with damage from the barn to the west of the structure. Two 2x4s were also embedded into the ground facing to the west-northwest.”
New Albany
As of Wednesday afternoon, the NWS has gone back and re-surveyed another area near New Albany and confirmed a SIXTH tornado in the area from last Wednesday’s storms.
This was an area that was previously just thought to have 70-75mph wind gusts.
They found an EF-1 tornado with 100mph winds that was on the ground for 2.24 miles and was 500 yards wide.
The NWS stated “The tornado first touched down just west of Green Valley Rd near Green Brier Dr. Multiple wooden power poles on the north side of the tornado were snapped toward the southeast. Some tree damage was noted over Holy Trinity Cemetery and a nearby neighborhood to the east. The tornado continued east northeast across a fairly flat area within and south of New Albany Community Park. More notable damage occurred in a WSW to ENE swath south of Castlewood Dr, roughly from Woodbourne Dr to Klerner Ln. Grace Lutheran Preschool had tree damage on the property as well as a dumpster moved 15 to 20 feet. Multiple trees were downed along Klerner Ln, where the tornado appeared to lift, per damage reports we have received. The sporadic damage paths found south of the tornado likely were inflow winds into the tornado, including damage identified by the survey team downstream of Green Valley Elementary, over Daisy Ln and Kent Dr and over to Klerner Ln at Charlestown Rd. The National Weather Service would like to thank the Floyd County Emergency Management and the Highlander Fire Department for helping us with the archived data, as well as TV news reports that assisted with documenting the damage right after it happened. Repair teams had cleaned up a lot of the electrical power pole damage as well as the tree damage before the survey team arrived.”
