Thunderstorm Wind — Powell, Kentucky

2015-04-03 · near Natural Bridge, Powell, Kentucky

Event narrative

A dead tree fell onto a tent at a campsite at the Middlefork campground, killing one person inside the tent and critically injuring a second person. No other tree damage was noted by first responders except for the dead tree.

Wider weather episode

Clusters of showers and thunderstorms began affecting central and eastern Kentucky during the pre-dawn hours of Friday April 3rd. The initial complex of thunderstorms targeted areas from Louisville across the Bluegrass Region in parts of east-central Kentucky, including the Natural Bridge State Park area. While these storms were not severe, they did produce gusty winds which downed a dead tree onto a camping site in the Middle Fork Campground killing a female camper and severely injuring another person.

Torrential rainfall occurred with the storms, with many locations in a stripe from Estill, Powell, Lee, Wolfe and Breathitt Counties seeing from three to four inches of rain during the morning storms. This caused widespread flash flooding and a Lee County woman was killed as she tried to drive through flood waters.

After a brief break, additional showers and thunderstorms targeted locations from Lexington eastward along I-64 into the Gateway Region Friday evening. This again caused widespread flash flooding in a stripe from Montgomery, Bath, Rowan and Elliott Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.7700, -83.6800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 566722. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.