Lightning — Madison, Kentucky

2013-08-21 · near Cottonburg, Madison, Kentucky

Event narrative

Lightning struck a tobacco barn near Buckeye, killing two men and injuring 3 others. The men were hanging tobacco at the time.

Wider weather episode

A well defined and progressive nearly cutoff low was positioned over east central Indiana during the afternoon of August 21st. South and east of this feature, a seasonally strong cyclonic 300mb jet was present, placing central and eastern Kentucky within an area of diffluence aloft. Strong instability up to 2000 joules developed by mid-afternoon along and east of Interstate 65. Scattered thunderstorms developed by late morning and strengthen during the afternoon hours. Training storms produced, within a 2 hour period, a strip of 4 to as much as 5 inches of rain across northern Lincoln and Garrard Counties. Within this line of storms, lightning struck a barn, killing two people and injuring three others. This has become Kentucky's worst lightning related incident in several years. Later, a strong storm that briefly displayed supercell characteristics developed over Shelby County. This storm produced golfball-sized hail and damaging winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.7214, -84.4826)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 462367. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.