Thunderstorm Wind — Letcher, Kentucky

2025-12-18 · near Letcher, Letcher, Kentucky

Event narrative

A report on social media showed a metal building in the 4300 block of KY-7 (between the Jeremiah and Letcher communities) with a peeled back roof. Pieces of sheet metal were blown straight into the yard of the neighboring property, along with lawn ornaments, outdoor furniture, and a metal swing set.

Wider weather episode

A cold front moved through eastern Kentucky on the evening of the Friday, December 19th. It was then followed by a second, reinforcing cold front that brought a strong surge of cold air. Showers and storm were present along the leading edge of the first cold front, eventually resulting in a thin line of storms moving quickly eastward. While temperatures were too cool for strong instability, the amount of sheer was decent, and strong winds aloft were able to be mixed down to the surface as storms moved through, especially along the leading edge of this line. This ultimately led to a handful of thunderstorm wind damage reports, despite no severe thunderstorm warnings being issued.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.1516, -82.9425)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1303735. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.