On This Day: Winter Tornado Outbreak in KY

On this day in January of 2006: a tornado outbreak occurred across the central portion of the state. Six tornadoes touched down across the state, including 3 F-2 tornadoes (the EF scale was implemented in 2007). The F-2 tornadoes impacted Hardin County, Lincoln county and Adair County in central KY, with all three causing significant damage and traveling over a mile. Two of the tornadoes travelled over 8 miles, as well!

The basic set up was pretty simple. There was a strong shortwave trough propagating towards the state during the early morning hours of the day. This was associated with a strong jet streak that move through the region. In addition, the shortwave trough was closed and deep as it moved towards the region, providing additional forcing, and helping to create instability across the region, which allowed for storms to develop.

The presence of a strong low, mid and upper level low also allowed for strong winds at those levels to develop. These winds shifted with height, creating a favorable shear environment for strong storms to develop in. Additionally, atmospheric moisture was highly anomalous for the time of year, creating an unstable environment that also had lower cloud bases. This all came together to produce a regional tornado outbreak across the state. The SPC issued plenty of products that day, including a severe thunderstorm watch, and they had the region in a slight risk for severe storms.

The tornadoes that were produced were not a surprise to meteorologists, but likely were for much of the public. Early January tornadoes aren’t very common around here, or really anywhere in the US.

This was a rare tornado outbreak across out region, especially. Check out some of the pictures of the tornadoes!

Nothing like that looks to occur this week, luckily. After this evening, we don’t look to have a storm threat the rest of the week.