I have been out and about observing some of the storm damage here in the region so my posts have been slow to get up here. Thursday I went out with Shawn Harley, Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service in Jackson, and his crew to check out some of the damage in Whitley County. The damage was simply amazing. I know you have heard this before.. but to see one house and everything in the yard untouched and to then go next to it and everything looks to be in order is a jaw dropper! I'll never understand that completely I suppose. All the damage that I saw was caused by straight line winds.

The storm survey team went on to Knox & Breathitt Counties reviewing the damage. Here is their findings.



Here's some of the official information.

WHITLEY AND KNOX COUNTIES

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON KY
829 AM EST FRI FEB 13 2009

...STORM SURVEY TEAM FINDS STRAIGHT LINE WIND DAMAGE IN WHITLEY AND
KNOX COUNTIES...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY TEAM TRAVELED TO WHITLEY
COUNTY ON THURSDAY TO INVESTIGATE DAMAGE FROM SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS
THAT OCCURRED WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. ALL OF THE DAMAGE THAT WAS SURVEYED
WAS CONSISTENT WITH STRAIGHT LINE WINDS INCLUDING THE DAMAGE IN
WILLIAMSBURG. IN WILLIAMSBURG NUMEROUS LARGE PINE TREES WERE SNAPPED
OR UPROOTED AND A LARGE HARDWOOD TREE WAS UPROOTED. AT WILLIAMSBURG
HIGH SCHOOL A SCORE BOARD MOUNTED ON STEEL I-BEAMS WAS BENT OVER AND
THERE WAS ALSO DAMAGE TO THE ROOF OF A BUILDING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
THE CUMBERLANDS.

THE TEAM ALSO DETERMINED THAT DAMAGE IN THE UPPER STINKING CREEK
REGION OF EASTERN KNOX COUNTY RESULTED FROM STRAIGHT LINE WINDS. ON
STINKING CREEK ROAD AN UNOCCUPIED TRAILER WAS BLOWN FROM ITS
FOUNDATION AND A CINDER BLOCK WALL AT A CAR WASH COLLAPSED.

DAMAGE ACROSS WHITLEY AND KNOX COUNTIES WAS CONSISTENT WITH STRAIGHT
LINE WINDS FROM 70 TO 100 MPH.

BREATHITT COUNTY

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON KY
225 PM EST FRI FEB 13 2009

...STORM SURVEY TEAM FINDS STRAIGHT LINE WIND DAMAGE IN BREATHITT
COUNTY...

A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY TEAM TRAVELED AROUND
BREATHITT COUNTY ON FRIDAY TO INVESTIGATE DAMAGE FROM SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS THAT OCCURRED WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. ALL OF THE DAMAGE
THAT WAS SURVEYED WAS CONSISTENT WITH STRAIGHT LINE WINDS INCLUDING
THE DAMAGE IN AND AROUND JACKSON. LOCATIONS THAT WERE HARDEST HIT IN
JACKSON WERE ALONG WASHINGTON AVENUE...HIGHLAND AVENUE AND ALONG
PICNIC HILL ROAD. IN THESE LOCATIONS...LARGE PINE AND HARDWOOD TREES
WERE UPROOTED AND SNAPPED ALONG WITH SHINGLE AND SIDING DAMAGE TO
SOME HOMES. SOME POWER POLES WERE ALSO SNAPPED. ALONG HIGHWAY 15...
SECTIONS OF A ROOF WERE REMOVED FROM A LARGE BUILDING ALONG WITH
NUMEROUS PINE AND HARDWOOD TREES BEING SNAPPED.

THE TEAM ALSO DETERMINED THAT DAMAGE ALONG HIGHWAY 476 IN
SOUTHEASTERN BREATHITT COUNTY WAS DUE TO STRAIGHT LINE WINDS. MOST
OF THE DAMAGE WAS FROM UPROOTED OR SNAPPED TREES...HOWEVER SOME
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ALSO OCCURRED. A TRAILER WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED
WITH THE ROOF COMPLETELY REMOVED A MILE WEST OF RUSSELL BRANCH ROAD.

THE STRAIGHT LINE WIND DAMAGE OBSERVED WAS CONSISTENT WITH WINDS
FROM 70 TO 100 MPH.


Now back to our forecast...
The next couple of days will see some change around the region. We have gotten pretty used to the fairly mild temps here lately, but these are moving out! A weak disturbance will bring light showers and cooler air to eastern Kentucky for Sunday. We might even see some of the moisture change over to light snow flakes whe it is all said and done.

A couple of your comments caught my attention and I think I will try to answer them. Back in the early days of this blog I would gather your questions through the week and answer them on Thursday or Friday. Would you like for me to start doing that again?

Posted by: dw Location: hazard, ky
Dear Jim, There's literally no such thing as 'literally a ton of (digital) pictures of rainbows.' Just sayin'.

dw... I am going to respond just as you did! Let's just imagine that someone had so many pictures of rainbows that they filled up billions of sd cards and flash drives and other memory devices. Then there would be a ton of devces with... rainbows images stored on them! Thanks for you comment and please leave me many many more!

Posted by: Brittany to the comment posted by dw, jim was meaning there is just a lot pictures !
Brittany... thanks for taking up for me there!

Posted by: Rhonda Location: Pikeville
Jim, when that big storm hit i looked out my window and everything looked RED..It amazed me!!! Why did everything look RED?

Rhonda... Not sure as to why it was red... I can tell you that with the number of particles in the atmosphere at that time it scattered the light quite a bit. When the light is scattered it begins to lose more of the blue color that we see during a normal day! This might have something to with the red. Sometimes during a storm the color displayed is green due to a large concentration of hail on the air.


C-Ya Bye