Hail in Franklin County, Kentucky

Quarter sized hail was observed in downtown Frankfort.

A unique cool season severe weather event took place across central Kentucky during the evening hours on November 29th. An approaching trough aloft and cold front at the surface created a strongly forced environment across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys. A 50 knot 925-mb jet and a 60 knot 850-mb jet provided plenty of vertical wind shear, with between 50 and 60 knots of effective bulk shear present across central Kentucky during the evening hours. Instability was relatively unimpressive, as generally between 500 and 1000 J/kg MUCAPE could be found in the pre-frontal environment. However, thanks to the strong environmental wind shear, supercell thunderstorms were able to develop across south central Kentucky during the early evening hours, moving quickly to the northeast after developing. Sufficient CAPE in the -10 to -30 degrees Celsius layer and long, straight hodographs contributed to left splitting supercells which produced several reports of hail across the region, ranging from quarter sized hail to ping pong ball sized hail.