Tornado Climatology of Boyle County

November 18, 1957
Counties:  Boyle
F-scale:  F1
Deaths:  0
Injuries:  0
Path width:  10 yards
Path length:  3 and a half miles
Time:  4:25pm to 4:30pm
Notes:  Tornado touched down on the Charles Caldwell Farm 3.5 miles southwest of Danville on Lebanon Road.  The tornado moved northeast into Danville, lifting shortly after causing damage at 435 Frye's Lane south of downtown.  A dozen homes lost their roofs, and about a million dollars (1957) in damage was done.   A tobacco warehouse was demolished on the southwest side of town.  Along the tornado's path, plate-glass windows, signs, trees, and smaller buildings were smashed.
Noted discrepancies:  NCDC and SPC storm databases place a tornado in Metcalfe County at this time, and nothing in Boyle County.  Storm Data shows the tornado in Boyle County, and nothing in Metcalfe County.   Further research suggests that the Boyle County tornado did indeed happen as described above.   In Metcalfe County, damage reported at Center and Sulphur Well appears to be from straight-line winds.  The Metcalfe County damage consisted of house and barn damage, but was spread across an area three miles wide.  Lexington Weather Bureau meteorologist Dix Newtown felt it was straight-line wind damage at the time.  Some witnesses thought there might have been a small tornado, but no credible eye-witness accounts of a visible funnel were received.  On this date a large tornado outbreak struck from Kentucky south to the Gulf States, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility that a small tornado, perhaps embedded in straight-line winds, struck somewhere in Metcalfe County.  However, going on the research done by this project up to this point,  it has been determined that there was a small tornado in Boyle County, but no tornado in Metcalfe County.  If you have information you'd like to share about either storm, please let us know.

May 6, 1971
Counties:  Boyle and Lincoln (and on into Rockcastle)
F-scale:  F1
Deaths:  0
Injuries:  0
Path width:  33 yards
Path length:  34 miles (skipping)
Time:  1:55pm EST
Notes:  Tornado touched down on the northwest side of Danville.  It initially moved south, damaging a farm south of town on Hustonville Road.  A numer of roofs were removed and walls blown out along the path through Danville.  Boyle County Stockyards lost roofs.  There was about $250,000 (1971) damage done in Danville.  Funnels were sighted by the public.  Winds in Danville were estimated at over 100 mph.  Moving into Lincoln County, two barns were destroyed.  At Stanford the sky was "filled with debris" and funnels were again sighted, along with scattered damage.  The tornado then proceeded into Rockcastle County, doing additional damage at Wildie.

April 3, 1974
Counties:  Casey, Lincoln, Boyle
F-scale:  F3
Deaths:  1
Injuries:  98
Path width:
Path length:  18 miles
Time:  5:35pm
Grazulis narrative:  Moved north-northeast from five miles southwest of Hustonville, passing through Junction City and ending at the south end of Lake Herrington northeast of Danville.  Over 100 homes were severely damaged or destroyed at Junction City.  Losses totalled five million dollars in Lincoln County.
Noted discrepancies:  SPC and NCDC give a path length of 21 miles...Grazulis give 18 miles.  SPC gives a path width of 10 yards, NCDC gives 30 yards, Grazulis doesn't know.  Grazulis lists this tornado at 6:35pm.

April 3, 1974
Counties:  Boyle, Mercer
F-scale:  F2
Deaths:  0
Injuries:  10
Path width:
Path length:  16 miles
Time:  6:12pm
Grazulis narrative:  Moved north-northeast from five miles west of Danville to the east side of Pleasant Hill, passing two miles east of Harrodsburg and ending about eight miles northeast of that town.  Ten people were injured in rural Boyle County.  In Mercer County four homes and 26 homes were destroyed.  Thirty-four homes were damaged.
Noted discrepancies:  NCDC gives no liftoff lat/lon.  SPC gives a path length of 16 miles, NCDC 17 miles, Grazulis 18 miles.  SPC gives a path width of 10 yards, NCDC 30 yards, Grazulis nothing.
Notes:  Storm Data begins this tornado near Nevada, moving it to the east side of Burgin, then curving northward to 3/4 of a mile west of Dix Dam, to the east side of Pleasant Hill.

April 21, 1976
Counties:  Boyle
F-scale:  F1
Deaths:
Injuries:
Path width:
Path length:
Time:  11:30am
Notes:  Storm Data places this tornado in Danville at the Corning Glass Works.

July 2, 1980
Counties:  Boyle
F-scale:  F1
Deaths:
Injuries:
Path width:
Path length:
Time:  7:45pm
Noted discrepancies:  Storm Data mentions damage at Perryville, Parksville, and Michelsville.  Lat/lon pair given by SPC disagrees with this storm striking Perryville.  Cannot find Michelsville on any map.  There is a Mitchellsburg in Boyle County, but it's not in line with Perryville/Parksville.  Will plot according to the lat/lon for now.

April 3, 2018
County:  Boyle
EF-Scale:  EF1
Deaths:   0
Injuries:  0
Path width:  100 yards
Path length:  0.5 mile
Time: 9:34pm - 9:35pm EDT
Notes: Touchdown was on a hill along KY 1822 where a large hay barn was destroyed, a medium sized barn was damaged, and fencing was destroyed. The tornado then did some damage to trees and a grain silo. An antique horse sled was picked up and moved about 10 feet. The tornado then struck a residence on the east side of KY 1822 and lifted off the roof. Insulation from the roof was thrown eastward and also rotated back and covered the back of the house. Farther east on Webster Road another residence sustained significant roof, gutter, and siding damage. Pine trees were snapped.