National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Overview

A complex weather system set up as an area of low pressure pushed across the Tennessee Valley on Saturday, May 5, 2018. Initially, a few supercell-like thunderstorms produced large hail due to their rotation and stronger updrafts near the Virginia border. A bowing line of storms then brought damaging wind gusts into the Lake Cumberland region later in the afternoon. There were multiple reports of large hail in some of the stronger storms in southeast Kentucky, with the largest hail occurring in Harlan County near Loyall.

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2.5 inch hail seen NW of Loyall
(Courtesy of Tammy Hyatt from Andrew Dockery WYMT Facebook).