National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rainfall in the Southern Plains; Heat Continues in the West

Strong to severe thunderstorms may bring areas of excessive rainfall and flooding over parts of the southern Plains today through Friday. Hot to dangerously hot temperatures are forecast across portions of the Pacific Northwest and southern Great Basin today. Gusty winds, dry, and hot conditions will bring critical fire weather to parts of central Washington state today. Read More >

October 31, 1934
Counties:  Casey, Lincoln, Pulaski (and on into Rockcastle and Laurel)
F-scale:  F2
Deaths:  6
Injuries:  32
Path width:  300 yards
Path length:  45 miles (probably a family of skipping tornadoes)
Time:  5:30pm
Narrative:  A complex series of tornadoes and downbursts produced over $350,000 damage in a nine-county area of central Kentucky.  The destruction of forty barns in Hart County and damage to 57 homes in Taylor County was likely from straight-line downburst winds.  The likelihood of tornado involvement seemed to begin near Gilpin, continued east, passing south of Eubank, and ending in northern Laurel County.  One person died in a home near Gilpin.  A mother and four children died in one home on the Laurel County side of the Rockcastle River, fifteen miles northwest of London.  Their home, which was destroyed, caught fire and only one child could be rescued.  Most of the injuries were in the Gilpin-Mount Olive area.