Hail — Union, Kentucky

2025-05-08 · near Morganfield, Union, Kentucky

Event narrative

Hail to the size of quarters fell just east of Morganfield.

Wider weather episode

A 500mb trough extended from Quebec southwest to the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers around midday and pushed slowly eastward through the afternoon. At the surface, a weak surface low tried to lift northeast through west Kentucky, as surface high pressure tried to build southeast across the lower Ohio Valley. The greatest instability was a bit elevated with MUCAPE values of 1000-2000J/kg, which result in meager effective shear of 25-30kts. Scattered showers and thunderstorms lifted northeast from the Missouri Bootheel into west Kentucky after 0900CST, and more widespread thunderstorms moved east out of southern Illinois in the early afternoon. One cluster of storms produced damaging winds and large hail over portions of Union County, while a second storm dropped large hail in southwest portions of Daviess County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6800, -87.8900)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1260270. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.