Alert archive / Kentucky / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 302

May 20, 20254 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 20, 2025, 1:10 PM EDT for 4 states. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 20, 2025, 1:10 PM EDT (17:10 UTC)
Expired: May 20, 2025, 6:27 PM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 77 counties

Bath County, KY, Bell County, KY, Bourbon County, KY, Boyd County, KY, Breathitt County, KY, Carter County, KY, Clark County, KY, Clay County, KY, Clinton County, KY, Elliott County, KY, Estill County, KY, Fleming County, KY, Floyd County, KY, Garrard County, KY, Greenup County, KY, Harlan County, KY, Jackson County, KY, Johnson County, KY, Knott County, KY, Knox County, KY, Laurel County, KY, Lawrence County, KY, Lee County, KY, Leslie County, KY, Letcher County, KY, Lincoln County, KY, Madison County, KY, Magoffin County, KY, Martin County, KY, McCreary County, KY, Menifee County, KY, Montgomery County, KY, Morgan County, KY, Nicholas County, KY, Owsley County, KY, Perry County, KY, Pike County, KY, Powell County, KY, Pulaski County, KY, Rockcastle County, KY, Rowan County, KY, Russell County, KY, Wayne County, KY, Whitley County, KY, Wolfe County, KY, Anderson County, TN, Campbell County, TN, Claiborne County, TN, Cumberland County, TN, Fentress County, TN, Grainger County, TN, Hamblen County, TN, Hancock County, TN, Hawkins County, TN, Morgan County, TN, Overton County, TN, Pickett County, TN, Scott County, TN, Sullivan County, TN, Union County, TN, Buchanan County, VA, City of Bristol, VA, City of Norton, VA, Dickenson County, VA, Lee County, VA, Russell County, VA, Scott County, VA, Washington County, VA, Wise County, VA, Boone County, WV, Cabell County, WV, Lincoln County, WV, Logan County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Mingo County, WV, Wayne County, WV, Wyoming County, WV

The radar

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 73 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:10 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 10%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 40%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

14 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 2:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Estill, Jackson, Lee, Rockcastle	44 min
May 20, 2:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LMK	Garrard, Madison	29 min
May 20, 2:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bell, Clay, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Lee and 5 more	38 min
May 20, 2:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Anderson, Knox, Morgan, Roane	53 min
May 20, 2:43 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bath, Estill, Jackson, Lee, Menifee, Montgomery and 3 more	47 min
May 20, 3:00 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Anderson, Knox, Morgan, Roane	45 min
May 20, 3:08 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Knox, Laurel and 3 more	37 min
May 20, 3:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bath, Breathitt, Elliott, Estill, Lee, Menifee and 4 more	51 min
May 20, 3:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bell, Knox, Whitley	36 min
May 20, 3:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Harlan, Knott, Knox and 4 more	38 min
May 20, 4:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Breathitt, Elliott, Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Morgan and 2 more	45 min
May 20, 4:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Breathitt, Floyd, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin and 1 more	38 min
May 20, 4:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Jefferson	45 min
May 20, 5:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Russell, Washington	42 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), launched 12:00Z, 5.2 hours before the alert went out and 275 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1162 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -41 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 904 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 58 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.9
Supercell composite: 3.9

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 19, 8:02 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Logan, Simpson, Todd	88 min
May 20, 2:07 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ballard, Caldwell, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Daviess and 16 more	83 min
May 20, 3:15 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Ballard, Caldwell, Carlisle, Crittenden, Daviess, Hancock and 11 more	4 hr
May 20, 11:19 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Allen, Anderson, Barren, Bath, Bell and 46 more	2 hr
May 20, 2:09 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman and 3 more	8 hr
May 20, 2:48 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Barren, Butler, Christian, Edmonson, Logan and 5 more	117 min
May 20, 3:36 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adair, Allen, Barren, Breckinridge, Butler, Caldwell and 30 more	8 hr
May 20, 3:42 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Lawrence, Letcher and 3 more	2 hr
May 20, 4:33 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ballard, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Fulton and 7 more	117 min
May 20, 6:13 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Boyle, Breathitt, Clark, Clay, Estill and 25 more	62 min
May 20, 7:27 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Estill, Harlan, Jackson and 15 more	6 hr
May 20, 1:34 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crockett, Dyer, Fayette, Haywood, Lake, Lauderdale and 2 more	116 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 2025 Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 2025 Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2025 Every tornado watch in 2025

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.