Flash Flood in Shelby County, Kentucky

Bardstown Trail was closed due to water flowing over the roadway.

A unique event with limited severe weather and flash flooding occurred during the evening hours on May 22nd. A surface low pressure system slowly moved across western Kentucky, with a warm front extending to the east-northeast across much of Kentucky. Along and south of this warm front, precipitable water values exceeding 1.7 inches lead to showers and a few thunderstorms which produced efficient rainfall rates. Where heavier showers and storms trained over eastern Shelby, Henry, and western Franklin County, a few instances of flash flooding were observed. Closer to the surface low pressure center, marginal amounts of instability (around 250-500 J/kg MLCAPE) combined with relatively impressive amounts of low-level shear and helicity along the warm front to produce miniature supercells. One of these mini supercells produced a brief EF0 tornado in Butler County near Butler County High School.