Thunderstorm Wind — Russell, Kentucky

2023-06-25 · near Jamestown, Russell, Kentucky

Event narrative

A very pronounced bowing segment cut southeast across Russell County during the early morning hours on Monday. This area of surging wind caused widespread tree damage in the Jamestown area.

The survey team focused on areas with the heaviest damage which were all south of Jamestown. The first area of considerable damage was at Jamestown Boat Storage on the west side of State Road 92. One of their large multi bay buildings had 5 southwest

facing oversized garage doors damaged. This allowed wind to get into the structure causing parts of the roof to collapse and other parts to blow off. The southeast wall sheet metal was also blown out. Half of the roof was completely gone over 9 bays, and

on the northeast side of the building the whole roof was down over 5 bays. Another storage building, to the southeast, on the same property had a few damaged garage doors and a small area of roof damage above the doors.

Less than a mile farther south on State Road 92, Stripers Boat Storage had 4 northwest facing garage doors blown in and damaged. Wind that made it into the building blew out 2 southeast facing doors. On the southwest side of the building, there were a couple snapped and uprooted mature trees facing to the southeast. Across the road on Lily Creek Ramp Road, Cumberland Boat Storage had at least 9 bays of their western most building completely destroyed. Wind blew in the doors on the northwest side of the building before blowing off the roof structure and walls. Nothing was left standing on the southwest side of the building.

A little farther south, a concentrated area of tree damage stretched along a southwest to northeast axis which was along area ridge tops. Along these ridges many roads including Oak Road, Carriage Lane, Pumpkin Creek Road, Harbor Springs and a few

others there were hundreds of large mature trees that were snapped and uprooted, many of which brought down area power lines and poles. Many trees fell on houses causing major damage. A few houses on Pumpkin Creek Road were completely destroyed due to multiple trees falling on them. All the downed trees in the area

fell to the southeast. No definitive convergence was observed.

The last of the damage was observed just under a mile farther south on Harbor Springs Road. Large uprooted trees were a common sight. This brought down power lines and poles, but the damage wasn't nearly as concentrated as that along Pumpkin Creek Road.

Wider weather episode

An anomalously strong mid- and upper-level trough for late June moved across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley from the afternoon hours on June 25th through the morning hours on June 26th. A 60-70 kt 500 mb jet bisected the mid-Mississippi Valley, placing central Kentucky and southern Indiana in the left exit region, contributing to broad rising motion over the area. Near the surface, a well-defined cold front crossed the Mississippi River during the mid-to-late afternoon hours on June 25th, with temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s and dewpoints in the upper 60s and lower 70s in the warm sector ahead of the front. In the warm sector, mixed-layer CAPE of 2500-3500 J/kg provided plenty of fuel for convective development aside from the aforementioned favorable jet forcing. With 25-35 knots of flow at 850 mb, there was also ample vertical wind shear across the region, with effective bulk shear values generally above 45 kt, leading to the development of supercellular structures. The parameter space was favorable for all severe hazards. 0-1 km storm-relative helicity was over 200 m2/s2 and significant tornado parameter values were frequently greater than 1, suggesting the potential for rotating mesocyclones and tornadoes. Downdraft CAPE was over 1200 J/kg along and west of Interstate 65, suggesting the potential for strong winds from any formidable downdrafts. Finally, sufficient mid-level lapse rates and significant hail parameter values warranted concerns for severe hail. As would be expected given the parameter space, all severe hazards were observed, with a couple tornadoes and numerous straight-line wind and hail reports across southern Indiana and central Kentucky. Straight-line winds of up to 100 mph and multiple reports of golf ball or larger size hail serve as evidence of the highly unusual setup across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys June 25th and 26th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.9647, -85.0538)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1118449. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.