Winter Storm — Breathitt, Kentucky

2025-01-05 to 2025-01-06 · Breathitt, Kentucky

Event narrative

Several inches of snow and isolated significant ice accumulation occurred on January 5th and 6th, 2025. Snowfall reports on the afternoon of the 5th began with a picture on social media from Whick at 1300EST showing 4 inches of measured snow. At 1325EST, a storm total of 4 inches was reported in Jackson. Later that afternoon, at 1548EST, a member of the public measured a total of 3.3 inches of snow in Quicksand.

Overnight, the combination of precipitation and freezing temperatures led to damage. At 0015EST on the 6th, a trained weather spotter reported two trees down. One tree was blocking a lane on Wolverine Road, and another on Quicksand Road destroyed a swing set. By the morning of the 6th, final storm total snowfall measurements were taken. At 0700EST, CoCoRaHS station KY-BE-9 (Jackson 1.9 SSE) recorded 3.7 inches, while the NWS office in Jackson measured 3.8 inches. In addition to the snow, significant ice accretion occurred. An NWS employee measured 0.16 inches of flat ice at the Quicksand Park and Ride at 0747EST. The NWS JKL AWOS on top of Sugar Camp Mountain reported a higher amount of 0.47 inches of flat ice at 0953EST.

Wider weather episode

The first significant winter storm of 2025 brought a mix of heavy snow and significant icing to eastern Kentucky on January 5th and 6th. A deep surface low tracked across southern Kentucky, spreading precipitation across the region. Snow began across the western counties of the forecast area as early as 0900 EST on January 5th, with snowfall rates up to one inch per hour quickly covering roadways. By 1000 EST, warmer air aloft began to change the snow over to freezing rain in southern counties, with this transition spreading north and east through the day. Through the evening and overnight hours of January 5th into the 6th, a prolonged period of freezing rain occurred, with the heaviest icing focused along the US-460 corridor. The highest icing amounts were observed across Menifee and Morgan counties where 0.50 to 0.75 inches of flat ice accretion were reported. Accumulating snow was observed across all of eastern Kentucky, with the highest amounts generally northeast of US-421, where 3 to 7 inches were common. The combination of snow and significant ice led to widespread impacts. Thousands of customers lost power, particularly in a narrow corridor through Menifee, Morgan, and Johnson counties, with some outages lasting nearly a week. Numerous trees were also damaged or downed by the weight of the ice.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1276600. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.