Metcalfe County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Metcalfe County: 3.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by KY GS (5).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Apr 16, 1998Tornado$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A series of three tornadoes cut a long path of destruction across south central Kentucky during the late afternoon and early evening of April 16. Three people were killed, two in Barren county and one in Metcalfe, as the tornadoes moved through. A 78 year old man was killed by fallen debris from his house in Wisdom accounting for the Metcalfe county death. In Glasgow of Barren county, a 67 year old man was killed in his mobile home and a 47 year old man was killed by flying debris off his greenhouse. The Glasgow area of Barren county and the Pellyton area of Adair county were hardest hit sustaining F3 damage. In Glasgow, 1 house was destroyed and 45 were badly damaged. 35 mobile…

2. Mar 28, 1997Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An F2 tornado touched down 1 mile west of Summer Shade just inside the Metcalfe-Barren county boarder at the intersection of Highway 90 and the Milam-Clark road killing a 28 year old woman and injuring her husband and two children. The family was thrown from their mobile home which was completely destroyed and blown away. From there, the tornado crossed Highway 90 and Highway 640 with houses damaged and some mobile homes destroyed. Then it crossed Highway 163 just south of Goodluck where one house was completely lifted off its foundation and then set back down again. The tornado proceeded into southwestern Adair county and lifted just north of Breeding. Over 100 barns, 11 mobile…

3. Apr 7, 2006Hail$550,000
4. Apr 5, 2017Thunderstorm Wind$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Over 160 structures were damaged in a 2-3 mile wide swath extending 15 miles from near Hiseville in Barren County northeast across Metcalfe into Green County. Three EF-1 tornadoes, with maximum winds of 100-110 mph were embedded within this area. Outside of the tornadoes, maximum winds were estimated at 70-90 mph. In Metcalfe County, two of the three tornadoes touched down near the community of Center, which had been hit by a brief EF-1 tornado just eight days earlier. In addition to the dozens of structures damaged by the non-tornadic winds - including the complete destruction of several outbuildings - several headstones were blown over in a small cemetery a half mile north of Center.

5. May 2, 2010Flash Flood$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads across the county were closed due to flash flooding, and Dunham Lake dam on the north side of Edmonton was in danger of failing when water surging over the spillway eroded up to 7 feet of earth away from both sides of the concrete spillway. The rushing water also washed away the shoulder of a roadway immediately downstream of the dam. A total of eight to ten inches of rain fell across Metcalfe county from May 1-2.

6. Mar 27, 2017Tornado$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This squall-line tornado was on the ground for just over a quarter of a mile, but caused considerable destruction. It touched down about 0.3 miles southwest of Center, destroying two large barns and a small outbuilding in addition to taking the roof off a small home. The front porch of a nearby home was briefly raised, causing the supports to fall out. The tornado moved northeast, streaming debris from the four buildings in a cyclonic pattern and into a nearby automotive repair shop that had one door blown in and another outward. The large metal shop had minor roof damage, but was pierced in several locations by debris from the outbuildings to the southwest and the entire facility…

7. Feb 11, 2018Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain resulted in numerous sinkholes, several bank erosions, and road washouts across Metcalfe County, resulting in nearly $170,000 damage to public infrastructure alone, with bridge and roadway washouts.

8. Apr 7, 2006Tornado$175,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several homes and barns were destroyed on Froedge-Dubree and Pitcock Roads in the Summer Shade area, as a tornado moved from Barren into Metcalfe County.

9. Apr 5, 2017Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This small tornado touched down near the intersection of Iron Mountain and Kidd Roads where it heavily damaged a barn, then moved east-northeast over open farmland before hitting a farm on the west side of Center Three Springs Road. It tore the back end off a large barn there and collapsed a 60 foot silo, then crossed the road and snapped off several trees before lifting. The doors on a nearby barn were blown in.

10. Jul 20, 2018Tornado$125,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    This short-lived spin-up 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 outbuilding's roof was 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…

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

109°FJul 18, 1986

All-time low

−19°F2 times, most recently Jan 21, 1985

Warmest night

81°FJun 13, 2022

Coldest day

−6°FJan 21, 1985

Wettest day

6.15 inAug 30, 2005

Snowiest day

11.0 inMar 23, 1968

Hottest year

1998mean 61.0°F

Coldest year

1976mean 55.0°F

Wettest year

201969.90 in

Driest year

200735.88 in

Snowiest season

24.4 in1967-68

Station Barren Rvr Lake (USC00150422), 615 ft elevation, 27.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1963 to October 23, 2026; 96.8% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

Neighbouring counties

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00150422.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.