6:50pm Update
The severe weather threat continues across far southern and southeastern Kentucky for a few more hours. Damaging winds and large hail will be likely. We have had a ton of wind damage and hail reports from across the state.
Keep posting the weather from where you live. Take care.
6:08pm Update
HE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSON KY HAS ISSUED A* TORNADO WARNING FOR… WEST CENTRAL LAUREL COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY… CENTRAL PULASKI COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY… EXTREME SOUTH CENTRAL ROCKCASTLE COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY…* UNTIL 630 PM EDT* AT 603 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO. THIS DANGEROUS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR SOMERSET…AND MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE… RUTH…VALLEY OAK…SHOPVILLE…GRADE…BENT…DYKES…MOUNT VICTORY…BILLOWS…ROCKCASTLE SPRINGS…BUNCH AND BERNSTADT.
5:50pm Update
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSON KY HAS ISSUED A
* TORNADO WARNING FOR…
NORTHERN PULASKI COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY…
* UNTIL 615 PM EDT
* AT 542 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO. THIS DANGEROUS
STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR MAGNUM…OR 13 MILES NORTHWEST OF
SOMERSET…AND MOVING EAST AT 50 MPH.
* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE…
HOGUE…PULASKI…SCIENCE HILL…DABNEY…BOBTOWN…WOODSTOCK…
SHOPVILLE…VALLEY OAK AND BENT.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS
4pm Update
Severe storms are racing across central and eastern Kentucky. These storms are mainly large hail producers with nickel to golf ball sized hail possible. Damaging winds and and isolated tornado will continue to be possible into the early evening hours.
Keep posting the weather where you live. Take care.
Previous Update
Good afternoon everyone. A massive TORNADO WATCH is now out for much of Kentucky and surrounding states until 9pm this evening. This watch covers all but extreme western parts of the state.
Here is a look at the watch outline and the current warnings…
Damaging winds, VERY large hail and isolated tornadoes will be possible as storms race quickly eastward across the state into the evening.
Track the storms here…
I will have updates as needed through the day and will send out updates through twitter. You can sign follow me here Kentuckyweather or follow along in the twitter feed on the right side of the blog.
Help out the weather community across the region by posting the weather from where you live. Take care.
Thank you Chris! Those storms along the cold front appear to be firing up fast!
Here we go boys and girls. It’s gametime. Radar is filling in nicely now. Enjoy the next 6 hours…cause it’s going to be a while before we see it again. If you have a carport or garage at home, you might want to park your car in it. 🙂
Chris Bailey, why does the http://bit.ly/fWjVqr in your Twitter feed mention Louisville but is broadcast from the IOWA Environmental Mesonet? Does that mean our state has no way of issuing such an alert and instead we have to use the electronic infrastructure of other states? Just curious. Everyone stay safe out there today!
Big things popping to the west!! Looks to be firing up fast and furious 🙂
Sirens going in Corbin
There is nothing issued there. Why do they have the sirens on??
Severe thunderstorm warning for Whitley/Knox…Corbin is in Whitley/Knox
First tornado warnings of the day up in south central Indiana. Seems to me the t-storms are floowing a line so far. Havent seen any broken supercells yet. Will be interesting in another few hours!
Well, the T-storm warning was very short lived. AND, they are not supposed to sound the sirens just for a T-storm warning. See, this is why we NEED the state to step in and make a standard for each county to abide by…otherwise people get confused and alarmed for no reason.
Is a Tstorm WARNING not a reason to be concerned???
Who exactly established you as siren king? Where do you get info as to when sirens should go off? And the Warning “shortlived” may be as to where you are looking at it from. Geez.
There are clear boundaries to when you alert the public via civil defense sirens. And the various counties shouldn’t be taking it into their own hands as to when they use them for whatever they want. Tornado Warnings are to get a siren. If you sound them everytime there is a storm, even if it’s the 50 T-storm Warnings we get year, then you reduce the value of the siren. I’ve been pushing to get a state standard made for years.
I remember several years ago, there was a lot of severe wx going up around this area (NC KY), and a Tornado Warning was put out for S/SE parts of Jefferson County, as a funnel cloud had been sighted near the Buechel area. Well, lo & behold, what do our fine dispatchers and one of “Bardstown’s Finest’ do??! They sound the siren and interrupt our cable to announce a Tornado Warning for NELSON CO. because a tornado had been reported just south of the BUECHEL area! There were no storms remotely close to Bardstown at that time, but it sent all my neighbors scurrying outside to gander at the sky and/or get hysterical trying to round up their kiddo’s, etc. Even funnier??- an hour or so later we DID have a Tornado warning for Nelson Co and they didn’t even come over cable or sound the siren….{{sigh}}
Sirens are sounded for t-storms when there is a tornado watch since a tornado could occur quickly.
Man, that storm in Southern OH is a Monster. Any word yet how big the hail is with that thing?
I agree totally with WXman and this has been my beef since moving to Central Kentucky for quite some time. I am from Cincinnati and they do not sound sirens for any storm BUT tornadoes. Human nature being what it is, the more they sound sirens for strong thunderstorms, the less people pay attention to them. When they are only sounded for tornadoes, people know they mean business and will take them more seriously.
So – is it over after the main line goes through? It’s not looking so bad to me…hype?
I’m thankful its gonna be a while before there is the potential for severe weather. but so far just heavy rain in my neck of the woods and i’m stoked there isn’t any severe weather atm
Not so for Clark County – they sound the siren for any thunderstorm warning whether a tornado watch has been issued or not.
I will agree to disagree…I wouldn’t get upset to hear a siren with 60 mph winds and one inch hail bearing down on me.
As expected, most of the reports coming in are large hail reports.
Also, check out radar from Wilmington, OH. Those storms in OH are amazing!
About 3:10 had some good size hail in Williamsburg.
Seriously only here in Ky are garden variety thunderstorms cause for panic. For the most part our guidelines, although recently beefed up somewhat, are at the low end of the totem pole for severe weather criteria. I agree that it is completely unnecessary to sound the siren for anything less than a tornado. There are other ways of warning for lesser storms such as media outlets.
Small hail here at the office in Nicholasville. Coming in waves.
Hail in Vine Grove
The ground outside my office in nicholasville is white from all the hail!!!
Lexington between Alumni and Tatescreek is cranking up! I hope it’s a good one!
Been hailing nonstop for about 20 min. The retention pond out my window has filled up and all the hail is floating on it like foam. Really wild.
I have a 7pm flight tom Minneapolis from LEX tonight. What are my chances? I will bring a good book…
I live by one in Clark co and never noticed that. If so then they need to stop because that is over kill. Then again, they are mostly used to alert people outside at parks and such so maybe it is a good idea. Don’t want people outside in any type of severe weather.
Sunny, *80 in Northern Morgan,gusty Southwest winds,humidity only at 55%, that’s protecting us for a little while here-but only for a while, I’m afraid there will be some outflow boundary’s coming into play shortly from those monsters in Southern Ohio
Looks like Frankfort will miss most of the good stuff, 1 more weaker line of storms west of us.
pea sized hail at clays ferry.
I went into Walmart(Riverhill Ashland) around 2:00 the sun was shinning and within abt 10 mins I heard a loud clap of thunder and then within abt 5 mins or so the rain was hitting the building so hard you could hear it inside the store. I went to ck out just a couple mins aft that and got to the door and the storm was so bad the rain/wind/pea size hail the doors kept opening i guess from things hitting the sensor and the hail was blowing inside. that lasted for abt 15 mins and then the sun was back out and blue skys. Crazy weather. My husband was not a 5 min drive from me in Flatwoods and he said they got nothing.
I’m a storm spotter for the NWS here in Louisville in Valley Station. You’ll never guess what we just had???
A whole lot of Nothing. I mean absolutely nothing. Amazing!
There may still be a slight chance for something but seeing clearing skies just north of my location.
Here with ya in Louisville. Storms seemed to get better organized into a line before breaking down and enhancing the line south and east of Louisville. Literally broke up over us, looks like it may not even rain.
The sky is VERY dark south and east of Shelbyville. The line broke up north of us and strengthened just south of us. We hardly got a rain drop!
Large hail passed through Clark County and into the Camargo area of Montgomery Co a few minutes ago
dont speak too soon, latest update from SPC says cold front still out west and after these storms move through another line may form just as severe or worse
That storm in Harrodsburg must be a good one. In Lawrenceburg, I can hear a constant rumble of thunder from it. And I mean constant…no breaks at all. Literally non-stop lightning discharges from that storm cluster! Wow!
Completely overated is right! This storm appears as though it will be a bust!
WW
Guess I spoke too soon…
Pea-size hail in Valley Station with some lightning and gusty winds (around 40-45 mph). So far, only .05″ rain.
Wow. I live in town and work in the industrial park and hear them every time there is a warning. I lived in Fayette County before moving to Clark and don’t recall hearing a siren during the entire time I lived there. I guess it’s feast or famine 🙂
The radar shows a doozie over Morgan and Magoffin County…I’m in Johnson and am wondering if it will sink South too fast and us not get anything.
more hail at clays ferry a couple of min ago. bigger hail this time and my yard is covered. it looks like it snowed. and the thunder has been rolling constantly for the past 10 min.
I just got a call from my mom who was driving on US 60 in eastern Shelby County when the storm hit there. We got nothing here in Shelbyville but she said they got hit hard. Tons of vehicles were pulled off to the side of the road it was raining and hailing so hard. She said that the car was shaking because of the hail, wind, and rain and it lasted for about 15 minutes. She said it was the hardest she has ever seen it hail before.
sun has been out now in southeastern, KY for the last hour
I live in Scott Co. We have storm sirens at our softball and baseball fields that detect lightning in the area for the safety of the people in those parks. The main weather sirens are located in different areas and as far as I know, only sound if a tornado warning is issued.
So what is the scoop with the wind damage in Ashland? The radar doesn’t look all that bad there as of this typing…
The Siren next to me in nortwest Lexington sounds like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”……But I don’t think it ever goes off unless there is a tornado warning. I could be wrong.
Ugghhmmmm
That’s “northwest”
Sorry, I meant that I can hear it, but just don’t pay attention to if is a storm warning with or without a watch. I’ve heard the one in Fayette at Jacobson Park. It plays the music from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind and then tells you what is going on. The time I heard it was for a storm watch.
Always hype. Never more than a few rain showers and a clap of thunder. We really need to raise the criteria for severe status, because some of the storms that have prompted warnings are a complete joke.
Storm near Somerset is showing some rotation on radar, folks east of Somerset and in western Laurel county need to seek shelter now!
it may have been just a few showers at your house, but at mine it got nasty for a while. it definatley warrented the warning it received.
Getting ready to get slammed here. Hope it’s not too bad.
I live east of Somerset on HWY 80. No tornado but we had hail bigger than the size of golf balls. Pretty nasty.
I have to say these days the WEATHER SERVICES ARE OVERPROTTECTED,
but the first time they dont issue one then somebody gets killed there u go. so they are behind the 8 ball, yea the RADAR shows ROTATION/DANGEROUS WINDS but do u really get it? alot of times NO.
but again they have to issue these WARNINGS cause u might live 5 minutes away from me and be fine and I GET TREE ON ROOF ETC.
We got marble size hail and some decent wind but not too bad. We got clipped by the north side of the storm.
Had pea size hail in Brodhead (Rockcastle County) at about 6 PM.
Starting to thunder in Wise Co. VA
raining now….. Looks like some porliminary showers….
Is the severe stuff in Indiana going to work its way here? I thought the severe threat was over once the storms passed…guess not.
Looks like rapidly developing storms up around Indianapolis, are those a threat? We had next to nothing here in Georgetown.
Very heavy rain and pea size hail here in Hueysville (Floyd co)
There were limbs down all over North 25
And marble size hail too
Pretty bad hailstorm just south of London. We had marble to golfball sized hail at the house. A few houses north of us apparently suffered damage from larger stones.
Wow-there was 1 rumble of thunder in the distance, little wind, and barely enough rain to cover the pavement near Paynes Depot and the Bypass.
Ashland had a bad storm roll through around 2:00 alot of rain/wind/ pea to marble size hail loud thunder/lightening. I don’t know if that is when the damage was done or not but I do know it was bad around 2:00 because I was stuck in it.
So, I waited ALL in Louisville all day for big storms..then they broke up right on top of us. The sun even came out. Boo.
The atmosphere isn’t done yet. Serious lightning strikes approaching Lawrenceburg again. LMK radar is filling back in.
Well quite now we only had about 10 mins of a strong storm.I think the worst went around us thank God.I am now waiting for Pikeville College Bears to come up the 4Lane.Champs!!!