Thunderstorm Wind in Fleming County, Kentucky

A tree was blown down at 14 East Water Street.

Thunderstorms broke out across east Kentucky May 26th thanks to a mature low pressure system moving into the Ohio Valley from the west. This system initially pulled a warm front through eastern Kentucky in the evening, and most of the severe convection was associated with the approach and passage of this warm front. A cold front was then dragged across the region overnight and into the morning. Instability was not overly impressive going into this event, around 1000-1500 J/kg of CAPE. However, storms that formed were able to take advantage of the roughly 40 kts of effective shear over the area and organize into more multicellular and linear structures. The limited CAPE profile meant a more limited hail threat, leaving strong to damaging wind gusts as the primary threat, though tornadoes were not able to be ruled out. Even though storm motions were fairly swift, given the abundant moisture associated with this system, there was also a threat for flash flooding if any training set up or an area was hit multiple times. Several warnings, including Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood, and Tornado, were issued that evening, mainly across our most western and southwestern counties. Multiple reports of damaging wind leading to downed trees were received across the same areas, along with a couple of reports of water flowing over roadways. There were some wind reports within the Tornado Warnings, but no tornadoes were confirmed in the JKL area.