Thunderstorm Wind — Calloway, Kentucky

2011-04-25 · near Murray, Calloway, Kentucky

Event narrative

A Kentucky mesonet site measured a wind gust to 101 mph. A number of buildings were damaged, and an industrial warehouse was destroyed. Half the roof was torn off an auto parts store. There was extensive damage to trees and power lines in the city of Murray. Some trees were down on houses. Power poles were down. Roads were blocked. An eight-foot section of siding was blown off a manufacturing plant on the north side of Murray. Two rooftop air conditioning units were blown over. Two barns were blown down. City and county schools and Murray State University were cancelled the following day due to widespread power outages and blocked roads. The county emergency operations center was set up for the first time since the January, 2009 ice storm. Veteran utility workers declared that damage exceeded that from the 2009 ice storm.

Wider weather episode

A pronounced mid-level shortwave trough and associated 70 to 80 knot mid-level jet progressed northeastward from the southern Plains across Arkansas and Missouri. An associated surface low developed northeastward from southwest Missouri toward northwest Illinois. A gradual increase in the warm sector southerly low level jet occurred as the surface low deepened. Increasing vertical wind shear in the moist and unstable warm sector resulted in organized severe storms. The storms were organized into bowing lines with embedded supercell structures.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6100, -88.3300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 290475. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.