Winter Storm — Laurel, Kentucky

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

Event narrative

Precipitation began as mainly snow on the morning of January 5th, before changing over to a mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain that persisted through the day on the 6th. In the early morning hours of January 6th, at 0053EST, the ASOS station at the London-Corbin Airport reported a storm total of 0.27 inches of ice accretion. Later that morning at 0800EST, the CoCoRaHS observer at station KY-LL-6 (London 4.2 S) reported a total of 1.42 inches of liquid precipitation from the wintry mix.

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 1282970. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.