Good Thursday, everyone. We are coming off a major severe weather outbreak across the bluegrass state. Storms on Wednesday caused all kinds of wind damage with straight line gusts approaching 100mph at times. Now comes a small taste of winter weather tonight and early Friday.
This crazy pattern takes place on an historic weather day in Kentucky. March 2nd… That’s all you have to say and everyone knows exactly what you’re talking about. That fateful day back in 2012 produce deadly tornadoes across our region. Here’s a link to go back and see the live blog I was running that day… March 2nd Live Chat
2 days after that outbreak, it snowed across Kentucky. One could argue this recent outbreak is the most widespread and severe since March 2nd, 2012 and we also have snow in the forecast.
A period of light snow and flurries will work in here tonight and early Friday…
That can put down some coatings along the way. The GFS is usually too aggressive with totals…
The high res NAM is also indicating some coatings…
Milder air then returns for the weekend with temps hitting the 50s on Saturday and the 60s for Sunday. Temps may flirt with 70 Monday or Tuesday ahead of another strong cold front. The GFS is showing the potential for some decent storms late Tuesday and Wednesday…
Some of the other models are not as deep with that trough, thus have less cold air digging in and a weaker line of storms.
I will try to update things later today. Make it a good one and take care.
I worked tornado relief in the Crittenden/Piner area the following Sunday and the damage was unreal. That August I drove through Salyersville and saw the destruction along Restaurant Row still plain as day. My heart and best wishes are with the families of all the victims and survivors not only in the aforementioned areas, but East Brrnstadt as well.
The feelings of best wishes are surely mutual of everyone.
Crittenden KY was one of two EF4s that day, the other being at Henryville IN. Both EF4s were spawned – at different times – by the same supercell t-storm.
I was recently using Google Street View to observe more recent pics of the Salyersville business district. There are a few remaining empty foundations of homes and businesses, but the area has largely recovered including that destroyed McDonalds….one may recall the infamous images of the golden arches that were literally almost blown sideways on that McDonalds sign. But I was a bit stunned that there are now a few mobile homes in what was the heart of high end EF3 devastation. Hopefully those residents have an emergency plan for quick access to storm shelters, as mobile homes are not even a good last resort shelter. All but 4 of the 22 Kentucky fatalities and all 13 deaths in Indiana were in mobile homes that fateful day in 2012.
You can still see some of those areas hit by that storm just off I-75 north of London. One of the damaged homes now has a tornado shelter built next to it.
Looks like a pretty normal March temp wise. Looking forward to longer stretches of nice weather.
“The GFS is usually too aggressive with totals…” true and a bit of an understatement for this winter considering 1/2 inch or so total for this winter, in my part of Richmond… “16-17 the winter that wasn’t”
For snow here, this has not really been winter from that regard. Not seeing how anything sticks tonight. maybe a coating on metal surfaces and such.
Continuing storm surveys by NWS Nashville have uncovered a couple of likely EF1 tornadoes in northcentral Tennessee.
http://www.weather.gov/ohx/March12017StormSurveyResults
I recall the number of posts on this blog were off the charts before and during the Feb 29 2012 outbreak and especially the March 2 2012 twisters. These numbers were more similar to the number of postings during a big snow. While the most recent severe t-storms were not nearly as bad in our area as 2012 was, it was a bit surprising to me that there were relatively few posts the last few days. It’s true many here are mainly interested in snow, only to quickly flee the blog almost before the last flake of the season hits the ground and not returning until the next November. My own wife is as big a snow fan as anyone. But hopefully the lessons of the 2012 tornadoes are not already fading too much.
Tennessee Severe Weather Awareness Week continues through tomorrow:
http://www.weather.gov/ohx/swaw2017
Kentucky Severe Weather Awareness continues through March 7. A state tornado drill that was originally set for Feb 28 was postponed due to the most recent severe wx threat; that drill is now rescheduled for Friday March 3.
I,am first to admit that I was wrong on the severity of the storms that occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. I, first thought it would blow through the state without much fanfare, but I was wrong. It seemed to hit the river bottoms than in the hills where I live. We just had a regular thunderstorm. Maybe the elevation breaking up the storms, I don’t know ? Have a great day!
I’m literally just across the street from masterson station in McConnell’s Trace – When the squall line blew through here – it scared the crap out of me…but I’ve seen this many times before with little to no damage. It wasn’t until today I noticed a tree down in my neighbors yard going over a fence – not a big tree. But I think it was mostly northwest Lexington that got the very southern edge of that squall line…I had no clue masterson station would see all that damage but I’m not surprised at all. That wind was fierce and scary and it was blowing the intense rain sideways so hard that you could barely see the neighbors house looking out the window. I’m already done with severe weather and spring isn’t even here yet.
Obviously you didn’t look behind the federal prison. A lot of damage!
Need to access the Kentucky Mesonet for peak wind gusts for that day. I thought for sure the numbers were a bunch of technical glitches, as there was such a large discrepancy in wind speeds at that time.
Down in southern KY there wasn’t a lot of wind.
Thankfully, there was very little.
After, going back and looking, I must say, this has been one of the strangest Fall and Winters (2016-2017) I have experience in my 65 years living in the mid west. I think that Mother Nature is trying to balance the temperature of the globe by increasing the surface sea ice in the arctic, where extreme frigid arctic air has been allowed to build up to the point that it will eventually have to move south. Unfortunately, to ever action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. I’am expecting over the next four months a bout with very severe weather and this will continue till the temperature of the globe is balanced. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO EVERY SEVERE WEATHER ALERTS!
Might be right.
The storm that hit my area yesterday had 105 mph winds (confirmed by NWS) it was a microburst storm, it was 1000 ft long and 4000 ft wide.. lots of damage in that area!
Storm here on the outskirts of Huntington wasnt nearly as bad as some areas got it. We had a good rain and wind storm, some thunder, but that was about it. Thankfully no severe damage to properties or harms to people.
I love me a good snow storm and love a good thunderstorm, but not a fan of severe storms that damage properties and lives.