High Wind — Breathitt, Kentucky

2024-09-27 · Breathitt, Kentucky

Event narrative

Five observing stations in Breathitt County reported wind gusts, though peak speeds differed dramatically due to exposure. The strongest recorded wind gust of 56 mph occurred around 318 PM EST at the NWS Jackson ASOS. Meanwhile, the adjacent Jackson RAWs recorded a peak gusts of 41 mph at 956 AM EST. Other reported peak wind gusts ranged from 20 mph in a sheltered hollow 2 miles ENE of Noble at 1035 AM EST to 41 mph 2 miles SSE Noble at 215 PM EST. Wind damage was reported around the county by law enforcement, NWS employees and the public. These reports include: 1045 AM EST - trees blown down in the Frozen community; 1050 AM EST - trees blown down near WFO Jackson and on KY-30 within a couple miles of the offices, shingles were also blown off the NWS office building; 1100 AM EST - trees blown down on KY-541 near the Martha Layne Collins Bridge; 200 PM EST - power line blown down KY-15 immediately southeast of the Wolfe/Breathitt county line; 315 PM EST - tree blown down in Jackson, and 318 PM EST - tree blown down on KY-30 West about 1 mile from old KY-15, tree blown down onto vehicle along KY-315 approximately 3 miles from KY-30. Pictures on social media also show a large hardwood tree down at the Kentucky Mountain Bible College, impacting one of the college buildings.

Wider weather episode

The remnants of Hurricane Helene brought widespread wind damage to much of Kentucky on Friday, September 27th. Helene initially made landfall along Florida's Big Bend region during the late evening of Thursday, September 26th as a fast-moving Category 4 hurricane. The hurricane's rapid forward movement did not give the system much time to weaken by the time the system's tropical rain bands spread across eastern Kentucky by early Friday morning. As the dissipating core of the hurricane approached, northeast to easterly winds intensified rapidly across eastern Kentucky between 6 AM and 10 AM EDT. Wind gusts peaked at around 12 PM, ranging from 35 to 60+ mph at most locations. The strongest wind gust in eastern Kentucky, 64 mph, was reported atop Koomer Ridge just west of Campton. The combination of full foliage on the trees, saturated soils, and an atypical wind direction led to many uprooted trees, resulting in blocked roads and extensive power line damage. Isolated instances of structural damage were also observed.

Power outages across the Commonwealth numbered over 200,000 customers, the vast number of which were in eastern Kentucky, by the time the winds had diminished Friday afternoon. Kentucky Power alone reported at least 137 broken power poles and 734 spans of downed wire. Clark Energy reported over 100 broken poles in their service area. Jackson Energy reported 71 broken power poles and close to 400 spans of downed wire. Power restoration efforts continued for days after the storm, as some customers in the hardest hit locations did not see their power restored until October 3rd. There were also several reports received of trees falling on homes. Unfortunately, one injury was reported in eastern Kentucky, due to a tree falling on a home in the community of Cawood (Harlan County). The winds also put a damper on the festivities at the World Chicken Festival in Laurel County and the Sorghum Festival in Morgan County for most of the day.

While 5-day rainfall amounts exceeded 5 inches across portions of far southeastern Kentucky (locally up to 7.74 inches atop Big Black Mountain), weeks of unusually dry weather had led to the development of abnormally dry to severe drought conditions across most of the Eastern Kentucky Coalfields. Consequently, when a sluggish frontal boundary and upper level low became quasi-stationary across the region earlier in the week (around September 23rd and 24th), the repeated rounds of rainfall were highly beneficial for alleviating the drought. In fact, the additional rainfall from Helene only led to minor instances of stream and street flooding.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1218601. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.