Lightning — Russell, Kentucky

2022-07-06 · near Dent, Russell, Kentucky

Event narrative

Lightning struck a tree near Beckham Ridge Road 1 mile from West Highway 80. The homeowner had just entered their car when lightning struck. Bark was blown off the tree, and the tree snapped and fell on the car. Cost of damage is unknown.

Wider weather episode

Multiple rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms moved across Kentucky between July 6th and July 8th. The main focus for convection was areas along and just south of a quasi-stationary surface front, initially positioned from west to east across central Indiana on July 6th. Each afternoon, thunderstorms developed in the unstable airmass, gradually pushing south and east before dissipating quickly after loss of daytime heating. On July 6th, a broken line of strong-to-severe thunderstorms crossed the Ohio River from Indiana during the mid-afternoon hours. As the storms pushed across central Kentucky, downdraft CAPE of greater than 1200 J/kg helped damaging wind gusts reach the ground, and several wind damage reports were observed, mainly across north central Kentucky. On July 7th, lesser instability led to the development of garden-variety thunderstorms, with wind damage only being observed in a few of the strongest cells. Finally, on July 8th, clusters of strong and severe thunderstorms produced scattered wind damage across south central Kentucky, with flash flooding also being observed in Russell County due to repeated bursts of heavy rainfall.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.0775, -85.1048)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1046420. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.