April 3, 1974: the only F5 tornado in Kentucky history

On the afternoon of April 3, 1974, a tornado touched down about five miles southwest of Hardinsburg and tore a 32-mile path northeast, crossing into Meade County and striking Brandenburg head-on.

Thirty-one people were killed and about 270 injured. One hundred twenty-eight homes were destroyed outright, many swept from their foundations, along with some thirty businesses. Eighteen of the dead were on Green Street alone. Damage exceeded ten million dollars in 1974 money.

The National Weather Service rated it F5 — the top of the Fujita scale. Of the fifty-nine F5 and EF5 tornadoes recorded in the United States, it remains the ONLY one ever confirmed in Kentucky.

It was one of seven F5s that fell in a single day during the 1974 Super Outbreak, which killed 315 people across the eastern United States, 77 of them in Kentucky.