Rounds of severe storms hammered southern Indiana and central Kentucky on Friday, July 20, 2018 bringing very large hail, wind damage, heavy rain, and 4 confirmed tornadoes.
The National Weather Service Damage Survey Teams confirmed three tornadoes:
EF-1 Harrison County, IN
EF-1 Hart County, KY
EF-0 Metcalfe County, KY
EF-0 Washington County, IN
This very small, skipping tornado near Salem did its damage primarily on hilltops between Sparks Ferry Road and the intersection of State Road 135 and Lewellen Road.
It was 75 yards at its maximum width and traveled about 1.1 miles, according to the National Weather Service. It had maximum wind speeds of 80mph.
A few tree limbs and a small fence were downed near Sparks Ferry Road before it moved northeast over a large wooded area and open farmland.
The next damage was concentrated about a quarter of a miles south of Water Tower Road, just west of Highway 135.
Here the tornado tore multiple metal roof panels off a barn, blew the southward-facing overhead doors of a garage in, and tore the entrance door off the garage out on the west side.
The attached home sustained considerable siding and room damage. A small play shed on the west side of the home was destroyed, with the debris blown to the west-northwest.
Debris from the barn and home were scattered in a narrow path through row crops up to a third of a mile to the northeast, where a resident witnessed large sheets of roofing and siding fall into a hay field on the north side of Lewellen Road.
A corn field on the south side of Lewellen Road showed cyclonic rotation in a narrow path of flattened corn.
The National Weather Service in conjunction with Harrison County EMA conducted a storm survey around the New Middletown area where the supercell went through on Friday.
A tornado was confirmed of EF1 scale with a maximum wind speed of 105 mph. The tornado first touched down along Justin`s Trail in the Southwind Estates subdivision.
There was significant tree damage along Pleasure Ridge Road where a large tree fell on a garage. Farther east along Pleasure Ridge Road, several small funnels from the main funnel did extensive damage. A 2 x 8 impaled a concrete grain silo.
At least four big barns received extensive damage, including a turkey barn. Further east, several funnels congealed into one main tornado doing extensive damage to hardwood trees and significant roof damage to several homes.
Along South Pleasant Road, one home had mud spatter on the back east side of the house where several pieces of wood were impaled in the ground.
At that property, a pole barn was completely destroyed and thrown in different directions. A truck and horse trailer was moved and twisted 50 feet. The wind speeds in this area were the strongest at 105mph and the maximum width was 250 yards.
At the end of Sarabeth Way, there was extensive hardwood tree damage which included uprooted, twisted, and mangled trees.
This included several healthy hickory trees which were snapped. Further east on Sinker Road, there was an impressive cyclonic crop damage across a corn field with corn laying in every direction. On Simler Road, there was consistent snapped tree damage and we observed a camper that had been tossed and flipped over and several barns received extensive damage.
During the final stages of the tornado, it struck homes along Peyton Road flipping over single wide trailers, lifting the roof of a barn, and doing extensive tree damage. Parts of the barn, including insulation and sheet metal, were thrown into the trees.
The largest hail report we received was 4 inches in diameter (softball size) in Tompkinsville, KY.
The strongest measured wind gust was 70 mph at the Lexington Bluegrass Airport.
The EF0 tornado reported in Metcalfe County was a short-lived spin-up tornado occurred as a northeast-moving storm interacted with outflow winds from a southeastward-moving storm in eastern Metcalfe County.
The first damage occurred along Subtle Road, where a carport was overturned and a large part of a metal outbuildings roof torn off, in addition to snapping numerous
trees.
The tornado then moved east-northeast at tree-top level over wooded areas and farm fields, doing its next major damage a mile away, where it pushed a double-wide mobile home to the northwest off its blocks, breaking windows, and ripping off shingles from the roof.
The tornado continued on for another mile, causing occasional tree damage, and dropping debris before lifting near the east end of Groce Road, where it peeled roofing material from a metal out building.
The Hart County tornado touched down in a wooded area midway between J Riggs Rd and Copelin Rd north of state highway 728, snapping trees as it moved southeast along a hay field, where it destroyed two 1200 lb hay bales and rolled numerous others up to a tenth of a mile into a soybean field and uphill onto a knoll.
Snapping trees on the land adjacent to the hay and soybean fields, the tornado took a slight right turn, crossing highway 728, and destroying a large barn.
Large parts of the barn debris were lofted into trees southwest of the structure, snapping their trunks.
A 20 x 20 section of the barn was blown 500 feet to the south-southeast. The tornado continued southward for another two-tenths of a mile, downing trees along Campground Rd before lifting.
