Heavy Snow — Jefferson, Kentucky

1998-02-03 to 1998-02-06 · Jefferson, Kentucky

Wider weather episode

A freak winter storm dumped as much as 25 inches of snow on parts of Kentucky from the evening of February 3 to the morning of February 6. Most of the Kentucky counties were declared states of emergency by the morning of February 5 as trees and power lines were down across a large area of the Louisville County Warning Area and roads became snow covered, slick, hazardous and in some remote places inpassable. Over the three days, 3 people were killed and four injured across the Louisville CWA. One four year old boy was killed and 4 injured in a multi-car pileup on Interstate 65 in Louisville. A 71 year old man in Louisville was run crushed by his own truck as he and another man tried to free it from a snow drift. Also, a 35 year old man was killed in a traffic accident in Taylorsville. The storm system took a typical winter time path from the Gulf Coast and northeast along the Atlantic coast. However, due to the strength of the system and its slow movement, enough deep layered moisture was pulled into the system from the Atlantic Ocean, that the moisture was able to negotiate the Appalacian Mountains bringing heavy snows much further west than typical "nor'easters". The initial heavy snows started on the evening of February 3 in the southeast parts of the Louisville CWA and then spread north reaching the Louisville metropolitan area by shortly before sunrise on February 4. By 7 am est February 4, an area of 10 plus inch accumulations spread from Adair county northeast into Clark county and by 7 pm est, 10 plus accumulation totals stretched all the way to the Ohio River. By the afternoon of February 5, most of the heavy snow was confined to an area north of a Lexington to Louisville line. Snowfall depths as of the afternoon of February 6 ranged from 4 inches across southwest portions of the Louisville CWA (Cumberland, Logan, and Simpson counties) to as much as 25 inches at New Castle in Henry county. However, these numbers were lower than the actual snowfall amounts due to packing and some melting. 36 of the 49 counties in the Kentucky portion of the Louisville CWA had at least 10 total inches of snow on the ground at this time. Louisville had an all-time storm total snowfall of 22.4 inches eclipsing the old record (15.9 inches on January 16-17, 1994) by an astonishing 6.5 inches. From the evening of February 5 until daybreak February 6, parts of Oldham county had an addition 11 inches of new snow on the ground. Highest snowfall amounts were in the central and north parts of the state where anywhere from 12 to to near 30 inches of snow was reported over the entire period. Areas well to the southwest of Louisville generally ranged from 5 to 10 inches of total snow. The system finally winded down during the day Friday as the responsible low pressure system lifted northeast further out to sea.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5631521. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.