Thunderstorm Wind — Whitley, Kentucky

2024-05-26 · near Youngs Creek, Whitley, Kentucky

Event narrative

A handful of trees were snapped on a property off of Frankfort School Road in the Youngs Creek community. In addition to the snapped trees, two large trees (one softwood, one hardwood) were uprooted and blown onto a mobile home, destroying the home.

Wider weather episode

On the morning of May 26, a stationary front had set up along the Ohio River just north of the state. During the course of the day, this front slowly lifted northward as a warm front, as a low pressure system began to develop and take shape just west of the state. This added forcing, combined with Kentucky's location in a warm/moist airmass, was enough to spark widespread showers and thunderstorms. WPC noted an outflow boundary on several surface analysis, the presence of which contributed to more shower and thunderstorm development. Most of the storms took place during the afternoon hours on the 26th, however, some storms and damage occurred as early as 3am EDT and as late as 2 and 3am EDT the following night. Amongst the many reports of thunderstorm wind damage, there was also a quick and small rotation that developed in the community of Corbin, which led to a EF-1 tornado, affecting a car dealership and several other businesses/homes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.8778, -84.2303)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1181394. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.