Winter Storm — Trigg, Kentucky

2021-02-10 to 2021-02-11 · Trigg, Kentucky

Wider weather episode

A wintry mix of precipitation impacted the region resulting in icy roads, numerous accidents, road closures, and scattered power outages. About 3,000 customers in the Owensboro area were without power. The event started in the early morning hours of February 10th and continued into February 11th. Icy roads on the morning of February 10th resulted in one vehicle fatality (indirect fatality) in Trigg County on Highway 80 at the Trace Highway in Land-Between-The-Lakes National Recreation Area. Numerous accidents occurred from the morning hours of the 10th into the 11th. This resulted in lengthy road closures on the Audubon Parkway west of Owensboro, as well as sections of I-24 between Calvert City and Hopkinsville. Ice accumulations ranging from 0.1 to 0.25 were commonplace across western Kentucky. A narrow zone of higher ice amounts, ranging from 0.25 to 0.5, occurred from Shawneetown, IL eastward into the Henderson and Owensboro areas. Scattered power outages and downed tree limbs were primarily focused in this zone of higher accumulations as well. Most areas received at least minor accumulations of sleet along the Ohio River, but the heaviest swath of sleet amounts ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 occurred north of the Ohio River. The winter storm was the result of a moist southwest 500 mb flow and an embedded low-amplitude impulse. An inverted surface trough developing in the general vicinity of Arkansas brought another swath of precipitation. As the inverted trough pulled away to the east, colder air was drawn southward and changed the freezing rain to sleet.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 936119. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.