South central Kentucky was impacted by an intense round of thunderstorms yesterday evening. The weather feature that captured most of the spotlight was an HP supercell that impacted Butler & Warren County.
This storm produced a number of downed trees, power outages, along with dime & nickel size hail. A supercell thunderstorm is defined by the National Weather Service as follows:
“Potentially the most dangerous of the convective storm types. Storms possessing this structure have been observed to generate the vast majority of long-lived strong and violent (EF2-EF5) tornadoes, as well as downburst damage and large hail. It is defined as a thunderstorm consisting of one quasi-steady to rotating updraft which may exist for several hours. Supercells usually move to the right of the mean wind.”
The “HP” is used to describe a High Precipitation Supercell. This means that the area of rotation on the cell was wrapped in heavy rain, making it difficult to see. I was out chasing yesterday and managed to grab some great photos. Others sent in some great photos as well:
Base lowering with funnels evident just W of BG! Take shelter immediately! @NWSLouisville #lmkspotter pic.twitter.com/wpzFzqptMp
— Landon Hampton (@WxOrNotBG) June 5, 2014
Looking NW into rotation. She’s getting rain-wrapped as it tracks right over BG. Get to safe place immediately! pic.twitter.com/IbLjQwwT2Z — Landon Hampton (@WxOrNotBG) June 5, 2014
Oh hey. Cool. @WxOrNotBG pic.twitter.com/9tJS8d53Y6
— Cassi Nushart (@cassinushart) June 5, 2014
WOW! Incredible pano of wicked HP supercell tracking SE into Bowling Green. Thanks to Austin Neighbors for the photo! pic.twitter.com/KgOollvmHU — Landon Hampton (@WxOrNotBG) June 5, 2014
Another view of the #supercell over Bowling Green today. #KYwx @NWSLouisville @WxOrNotBG pic.twitter.com/Rp0BAnVfX1
— D☈D (@drdabroholos) June 5, 2014
Gotcha! Looking N into Bowling Green. #lightning #kywx pic.twitter.com/WdfFab8qbU — Landon Hampton (@WxOrNotBG) June 5, 2014
@WxOrNotBG Storm from earlier today. #KYwx pic.twitter.com/Sy1wkRREZ8
— Alex Sizemore (@alex_sizemore24) June 5, 2014
@joeimel @NWSLouisville @WxOrNotBG Just some lightning, Bowling Green, KY. #KYwx pic.twitter.com/mQl3yFptBV — Alex Sizemore (@alex_sizemore24) June 5, 2014
Tornado warned storm. pic.twitter.com/ESP23uqk7L
— Warren County WX (@WarrenCountyWX) June 5, 2014
Pano of tornado warned supercell as it crossed Butler/Warren Co line yesterday afternoon. Look at those colors. #kywx pic.twitter.com/H8kytqoK2W
— Landon Hampton (@WxOrNotBG) June 5, 2014
We were very lucky that the rotation never made it to the ground. This is hands down the greatest structure I’ve ever witnessed in our area. I almost thought I was out on the plains again!
Check out the following youtube video, captured by Dr. Joshua Durkee, an Associate Professor of Meteorology at Western Kentucky University:
He also put together this great time-lapse from the skycam atop Van Meter Hall at WKU:
Be very thankful for the outcome of this event. We may not be so lucky next time…whenever that may be.