Thunderstorm Wind in Simpson County, Kentucky

Several trees and power lines were blown down by strong winds in and around Franklin.

During the late morning and afternoon hours on May 7th, an occasionally broken line of strong-to-severe thunderstorms moved from north to south across central Kentucky. These storms were not associated with any low-level front; however, they were the continuation of convection which fired during the late evening hours on May 6th over northern Illinois and had moved south-southeastward along with a mid-level shortwave disturbance transiting along the top edge of larger scale ridging. Ahead of the line of storms, a moderately unstable environment existed. Initially, around 500 J/kg MLCAPE was present as storms approached the Interstate 64 corridor; this increased to between 1000-2000 J/kg later in the day across south central Kentucky as the atmosphere had more time to destabilize. Wind shear was modest at best, but was sufficient to keep storms going across the region. Most portions of the line of storms were sub-severe, but a few isolated areas of severe winds, hail, and one tornado occurred as the line moved through central Kentucky.