Good Sunday to my favorite fellow weather lovers! I had a few minutes this afternoon and wanted to break out the old Blog once again to share some things with you. I really wanted to talk about the severe weather event that happened back on Wednesday evening. As someone who has chased these things for years, and knows a thing or two about a thing or two, you simply cannot have any closer of a call than what we had on Wednesday. It also hits different when it you being chased and not that chaser and when its your whole family involved and not just you.
Let's recap a bit shall we? Wednesday a slight risk for severe thunderstorms was in place for a good chunk of the state. A MCV was moving eastward across western Kentucky to start the day. I was reviewing forecast models before work that morning thinking "This is a classic sleeper event" Yes, the threats were real but likely down-played some due to the current thinking of issues with available moisture and a slight cap being in place.
I had shared with you guys that morning that if I was chasing I'd start in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and make my way east and south through out the afternoon and evening. No sooner that the afternoon struck, severe thunderstorms warnings went up for the Elizabethtown area for damaging winds and large hail. Some rotation was already being noted in some of these which I already knew there was enough spin available in the atmosphere to produce a tornado or two later in the day. There was also a lull in action for a period in the afternoon but once into the evening hours it was all about the southeast.
Severe thunderstorms warnings start to go up into our coverage area in Pulaski County and that's when I noticed strong rotation showing up on velocity scans and no sooner than I made the post for folks to be very weather aware in Somerset and SE Pulaski County, the NWS went ahead and upgraded the Severe Thunderstorm Warning to a Tornado Warning. Folks, I'm here to tell you I've seen similar radar returns and velocity scans when tracking storms in the midwestern parts of the country and watched those produce strong tornadoes. When I tell you this was as close of a call you can get without anything happening I mean that. It would have worst case scenario if this storm was slightly better organized and had more spacing from other storms.
I live in the Southwestern part of Laurel County, and my family and I was trying to enjoy dinner when I noticed that this thing was headed straight for us. There was no signs of weakening and when outside taking observations, I noticed I could see it. I saw a massive, ominous, rotating wall cloud, slightly hidden by other trees beyond my neighbors houses. At that moment it hit me. The reality that my family and I was in great danger. As I mentioned above, I'm no stranger to chasing these things, about 7 years ago I was turkey hunting one morning and decided to hang up my gun to bust my butt and hustle across county to intercept a Gustnado that produced a tornado warning and it's still one of my most memorable chases to this day, but on Wednesday I realized the chaser was being chased and this time it was coming for my family and my home.
As you guys know I took shelter with my family and made myself available for further updates as long as I could. Ultimately this thing took a last second jog south and missed us by nearly a mile. Although no tornado ever materialized but like I continue to mention, this was as close of a call that could have been a hundred times worse. These storms went on to produce multiple other Tornado Warnings through the evening and like the near miss at home, the situation could have been a lot worse and speaking from a Meteorological standpoint, it wouldn't have taken much more for this thing to have been a strong, long lived tornado.
Guys, when a tornado warning is issued, its best to take cover no matter if your local weather guy says "the rotation isn't that strong" if they say that they they're being very misleading because radar can long see so close to the ground and here's why. Radar sends out a beam that runs straight which is fine, but here's the issue, the earth is curved. That means the further you live away from the radar site which in this case was Jackson, KY (about 73 miles away from London) the more space there is that is missed from the surface of the earth to the radar beam itself. That alone is way more than enough for a tornado to be ongoing and the radar to not see it. Meaning if a warning is issued, take cover, because its better to be safe than sorry.
I wanted to write this post to give you a sort of behind the scenes of what was going on that day and how truly of a close call it was. This should be a reminder that we are still in the middle of severe thunderstorm season and tornadoes are still a possibility during severe weather days and as long as you guys allow me (and don't fire me) I'll continue to be here and help give the knowledge, and share all information needed to help you stay weather aware. I'm also looking to roll out the website in the near future that will feature all kinds of awesome things. I'm also looking for paid sponsors that will help fund equipment upgrades to continue to stay #1 in the way you get the best, most accurate weather information. Feel free to reach out to me on deals for that as well. We have great things planned and I thank you for being along for the ride. Have a great week and take care my friends, and always stay weather aware.
