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Overview

A dome of high pressure ridging resided over the region from Monday, June 13th through Thursday, June 16th, bringing with it the first heat wave of the summer. Temperatures soared well into the 90s at the lower elevations each day. Both of the eastern Kentucky climate sites, London-Corbin Airport and the Jackson Weather Office, broke their daily record highs by 1 to 3 degrees each day. Dew points in the lower to mid 70s on most days made those temperatures feel even more oppressive as heat indices soared into the 100 to 110F range each afternoon. 

A complex of thunderstorms developed over the Missouri Valley ahead of a cold front during the predawn hours of Friday, June 17th. This system arrived in the Ohio Valley near dawn and caused damaging winds in portions of Illinois, Indiana, and western Kentucky. The system weakened briefly during the morning, but the remnants encountered a very moist, unstable airmass leading to intensifying showers and thunderstorms over the Bluegrass Region as the system approached eastern Kentucky at midday. As the thunderstorm complex continued east of I-75, it brought powerful wind gusts which downed trees, power poles, and power lines across many counties stretching from the Bluegrass Region all the way to the Virginia and West Virginia borders. The greatest concentrations of damage were near and north of the Mountain Parkway and near the Tug Fork River from Martin County to the Belfry and South Williamson vicinity. Several counties along and south of Highway 80 and the Hal Rogers Parkway down to the Tennessee border also experienced damaging severe thunderstorm winds, with many trees and power lines blown down. The severe thunderstorms crossed the region quickly, exiting the area by around 230 PM.

Widespread wind gusts in the 40 to 65 mph range occurred with several localized gusts of 65 to 80 mph likely occurring based on radar data and damage reports of leveled barns or outbuildings, loss of roofing material from structures, uprooted trees, and snapped utility poles. Based on radar velocity data, some counties may have experienced the strong to damaging winds for at least 15 to 25 minutes as the storms rolled through, which greatly contributed to the widespread damage reports received. In fact, it is likely that thousands of trees and limbs were downed, dozens of power poles were broken, and many miles of powerlines were blown down during this event. Well over 100 local storm reports were received by the National Weather Service Office at Jackson. More than 800 severe wind reports were issued for the entire event with a majority of the reports coming from Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Eastern Kentucky appeared to have among the greatest concentrations of damaging wind reports for that date.

Immediately following the event on Friday afternoon, approximately 35,000 customers were without power in the 33 county NWS Jackson, Kentucky County Warning Area. Some of the most extensive power outages were in Elliott, Martin, Johnson, and Floyd counties. Power outages extended over 24 hours for some with about 10,000 still without power around sunset on Saturday the 18th. Crews continued to restore power to customers on Sunday the 19th and Monday the 20th, with power having been restored in most locations by sunset on the 20th. A map of the wind damage reports from eastern Kentucky and nearby areas can be found under the Storm Reports tab. A national map of severe storm reports on June 17th can be viewed here.

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Downed Power Pole in Rowan County
(Courtesy of Johnny Feltner)
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