Thunderstorm Wind — Floyd, Kentucky

2019-05-29 · near Prestonsburg, Floyd, Kentucky

Event narrative

A National Weather Service Meteorologist surveyed localized downburst winds in Prestonsburg. These winds caused sporadic damage throughout the community. The highest wind gust estimated was in downtown Prestonsburg on West Court Street

where one half of the roof of a hock shop building was lifted off. This roof landed on West Court Street, including on multiple vehicles, fatally wounding one person in a moving vehicle. Glass was also broken on multiple windows on the north side of the building. There were a number of other buildings and homes with minor roof

or gutter damage nearby, as well as a couple of uprooted trees near the downtown area. A HAM radio tower that had been mounted on the top of the annex building beside the jail and behind the courthouse in downtown Prestonsburg was also destroyed by thunderstorm wind gusts. The winds snapped the support wires that had been holding up the tower causing the tower to break in half and fall onto the roof of the building it had been mounted on and the ground next to the building. Wind speeds that uprooted a tree at a residence on South Highland Avenue were estimated to be in the upper end of the 70 to 80 mph range.

Wider weather episode

The combination of an upper level impulse and southward sagging frontal boundary out of the Ohio Valley brought a line of strong to severe thunderstorms across eastern Kentucky. The most intense of these storms moved through far eastern Kentucky, including Prestonsburg where a 70-80 mph downburst blew half the roof off of a hock shop building.

A man driving on West Court Street was crushed by this roof, resulting in his death. Damage stretched for about 1 mile through the city. Severe winds blew out a few of the windows of a 2 story building on West Court Street, while a large healthy poplar tree was uprooted.

Elsewhere, from West Liberty and Jackson eastward through Pike County, mainly tree damage was sustained. In Letcher County, a rotating supercell produced quarter to golf ball sized hail near Jenkins, while Somerset experienced isolated damage from a thunderstorm wind gust on the southwest flank of the line of storms.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6748, -82.7783)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 815834. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.