A well defined and progressive nearly cutoff low was positioned over east central Indiana during the afternoon of August 21st. South and east of this feature, a seasonally strong cyclonic 300mb jet was present, placing central and eastern Kentucky within an area of diffluence aloft.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS LMK wrote it up.
A well defined and progressive nearly cutoff low was positioned over east central Indiana during the afternoon of August 21st. South and east of this feature, a seasonally strong cyclonic 300mb jet was present, placing central and eastern Kentucky within an area of diffluence aloft. Strong instability up to 2000 joules developed by mid-afternoon along and east of Interstate 65. Scattered thunderstorms developed by late morning and strengthen during the afternoon hours. Training storms produced, within a 2 hour period, a strip of 4 to as much as 5 inches of rain across northern Lincoln and Garrard Counties. Within this line of storms, lightning struck a barn, killing two people and injuring three others. This has become Kentucky's worst lightning related incident in several years. Later, a strong storm that briefly displayed supercell characteristics developed over Shelby County. This storm produced golfball-sized hail and damaging winds.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 21, 12:10 PM EST, 20 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 110 PM EDT Wed Aug 21 2013 ...Updated Aviation Discussion... .SHORT TERM (Now through Thursday)... Issued at 323 AM EDT Wed Aug 21 2013 An upper low swirling above Indiana this morning will move east into Ohio this afternoon. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop in the warm, humid, unstable atmosphere to the south and east of this feature today. The best chances for storms will be in the Blue Grass and Lake Cumberland regions during the afternoon hours. While warm mid levels and weak synoptic wind fields will discourage organized severe weather, by late this afternoon soundings indicate very dry air in the mid levels which could promote some strong wind gusts at the surface in any taller, stronger storms. Model MDPI values are progged in the 0.7 to 0.9 range, supporting the idea of some gusty winds. Yesterday the Clark County KY Mesonet site received a gust to nearly 30 mph from a cell a few miles away, so it does appear that some gusty winds will be possible with any heavier downpours today as well. Temperatures this afternoon should be similar to yesterday, in the middle 80s. Afternoon convection will quickly dissipate early this evening as we not only lose daytime heating but also the upper low and its attendant trof will be moving well east of us. It will be a muggy night with lows around 70. Thursday morning a cold front will stretch from the Great Lakes to the central Plains. The front will drop southward and weaken, arriving in the Ohio Valley by evening. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will develop ahead of this feature, especially in the afternoon and with the greatest coverage in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky. Synoptic wind fields will be light, wet bulb zero heights elevated, and soundings aren't showing much dry air aloft, so organized severe weather is not expected. Precipitable water values are only slightly above normal but locally heavy downpours can still be expected. High temperatures will once again be in the middle 80s, with some upper 80s possible especially west of I-65. .LONG TERM (Thursday night through Tuesday)... Issued at 317 AM EDT Wed Aug 21 2013 For the start of this forecast period, a weak frontal boundary will be in the vicinity of the forecast area, allowing for chance PoPs to exist areawide. While deterministic models have been in general agreement with the boundary, there are slight temporal differences. The 00Z GFS has it well into Tennessee by Friday morning, whereas both the 12Z and 00Z runs of the ECMWF and the 00Z NAM have it going through more slowly, with the NAM being the slowest solution of them all. Despite the GFS wanting to go completely dry for southern KY by Friday morning, decided to line up more with the middle of the road in timing and placement of the front, essentially leaning toward the ECMWF. To paint the picture, have gone with slight to chance PoPs across the southern commonwealth along a NE to SW line, running from LEX to BWG in the 12Z Fri. to 00Z Sat. time frame. Could probably go completely dry after 18Z Fri. but have kept the 12 hour block for now to account for uncertainty. Lows overnight Thursday will linger just under the 70 degree mark but will be much lower for Friday night. Lows look to range from the low to mid 60s under plentiful radiational cooling, once again running a few degrees below normal as has been the trend as of late. Highs on Friday and Saturday will also continue to run just a couple degrees below normal, generally in the mid 80s. This below normal trend won't last long because beginning this weekend, a rather stout and large upper-level ridge (the GFS, ECMWF, and GEM all hint at 500mb heights topping out around 595) begins building into the Ohio Valley from the Plains, encompassing much of the central CONUS. There is minimal movement in its placement except for some meandering toward us by the middle of next week. Given its strong hold over the center of the country, there appears to be little to no chance of convection from Saturday through Tuesday night. Both the 00Z ECMWF and GFS hint at possible diurnally-driven convection Monday afternoon but given the lack of support, have opted to not include mentionable PoPs at this juncture. As far as temperatures are concerned, plenty of summertime heat will return as both highs and lows return to near normal by next week. && .AVIATION (18Z TAF Update)... Issued at 105 PM EDT Wed Aug 21 2013 Main challenge in this TAF set is afternoon convection. Best chance will be near LEX, where it will be a press time decision whether to include VCTS/CB. Can't rule out a stray storm at BWG or SDF, but probabilities are too low to include in the TAFs. Either way, chances should decrease later in the afternoon as the upper low over Indiana pulls east, and gives way to ridging. Clearing skies and light winds overnight. However, confidence in any fog forecast is fairly low. NAM forecast soundings seem to have the best handle on the moisture profile, but winds just off the deck are progged to shift to westerly and increase to 15-20 kt. In spite of temps crossing over current dewpoints, will only take BWG down to MVFR, with VFR conditions at SDF and LEX. Heavy rain directly impacting any one of the airports will warrant re-visiting this part of the forecast by the 00Z issuance. Cold front drops in on Thursday, with somewhat deeper mixing resulting in a higher diurnally-driven Cu deck. Convection should hold off until after 18Z, but chances remain too low to even include in the SDF TAF. && .LMK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... KY...NONE. IN...NONE. && Short Term........13 Long Term.........lg Aviation..........RAS
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 1127 AM EDT WED AUG 21 2013 INZ076>079-083-084-089>092-KYZ023>043-045>049-053>057-061>067- 070>078-081-082-221530- ORANGE IN-WASHINGTON IN-SCOTT IN-JEFFERSON IN-DUBOIS IN-CRAWFORD IN- PERRY IN-HARRISON IN-FLOYD IN-CLARK IN-HANCOCK KY-BRECKINRIDGE KY- MEADE KY-OHIO KY-GRAYSON KY-HARDIN KY-BULLITT KY-JEFFERSON KY- OLDHAM KY-TRIMBLE KY-HENRY KY-SHELBY KY-FRANKLIN KY-SCOTT KY- HARRISON KY-SPENCER KY-ANDERSON KY-WOODFORD KY-FAYETTE KY-BOURBON KY- NICHOLAS KY-NELSON KY-WASHINGTON KY-MERCER KY-JESSAMINE KY-CLARK KY- LARUE KY-MARION KY-BOYLE KY-GARRARD KY-MADISON KY-BUTLER KY- EDMONSON KY-HART KY-GREEN KY-TAYLOR KY-CASEY KY-LINCOLN KY-LOGAN KY- WARREN KY-SIMPSON KY-ALLEN KY-BARREN KY-MONROE KY-METCALFE KY- ADAIR KY-RUSSELL KY-CUMBERLAND KY-CLINTON KY- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...PAOLI...SALEM...SCOTTSBURG...MADISON... JASPER...MARENGO...TELL CITY...CORYDON...NEW ALBANY... JEFFERSONVILLE...HAWESVILLE...HARDINSBURG...BRANDENBURG... BEAVER DAM...LEITCHFIELD...ELIZABETHTOWN...FORT KNOX... MOUNT WASHINGTON...SHEPHERDSVILLE...LOUISVILLE...LA GRANGE... BEDFORD...NEW CASTLE...SHELBYVILLE...FRANKFORT...GEORGETOWN... CYNTHIANA...TAYLORSVILLE...LAWRENCEBURG...VERSAILLES...LEXINGTON... PARIS...CARLISLE...BARDSTOWN...SPRINGFIELD...HARRODSBURG... NICHOLASVILLE...WINCHESTER...HODGENVILLE...LEBANON...DANVILLE... LANCASTER...RICHMOND...MORGANTOWN...BROWNSVILLE...MUNFORDVILLE... GREENSBURG...CAMPBELLSVILLE...LIBERTY...STANFORD...RUSSELLVILLE... BOWLING GREEN...FRANKLIN...SCOTTSVILLE...GLASGOW...TOMPKINSVILLE... EDMONTON...COLUMBIA...JAMESTOWN...BURKESVILLE...ALBANY 1127 AM EDT WED AUG 21 2013 /1027 AM CDT WED AUG 21 2013/ THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA AND CENTRAL KENTUCKY. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGH LATE AFTERNOON EAST OF INTERSTATE 65. A FEW OF THE STRONGER STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF HEAVY DOWNPOURS AND GUSTY WINDS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE THURSDAY INTO THURSDAY NIGHT AS A COLD FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE AREA. WHILE STRONG TO SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED...ANY THUNDERSTORMS THAT DO DEVELOP WILL BE CAPABLE OF DANGEROUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING AND BRIEF HEAVY RAINFALL. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. && MORE INFORMATION...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER...HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND...AT WEATHER.GOV/LOUISVILLE. 13/LG/RAS
The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:27 UTC.
4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 hail, 1 lightning, 1 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning struck a tobacco barn near Buckeye, killing two men and injuring 3 others. The men were hanging tobacco at the time.
Local media reported several trees and power lines down near Berea.
A thunderstorm toppled a tree in Richmond.
A Kentucky mesonet site 4 miles north of Stanford measured 2.82 inches of rain in one hour and 10 minutes. This site lies just south of the axis of the heaviest rainfall, where a radar estimated 4 to 5 inches fell with 2 hours.
The Lancaster Fire Dept. reported that Crab Orchard Road was briefly closed due to flash flooding. Buckeye Road was also partially impeded by high water.
Five hundred feet of Highway 1150 was washed away by flash flooding between mile markers 0 and 1.
Gilbert's Creek Road was closed when Turkey Creek overflowed a bridge.
Local law enforcement reported two trees down along Peaks Mill Road.
Local media reported golf-ball sized hail that fell from a supercell in Simpsonville.
The local emergency manager reported that a large tree fell on a house in Simpsonville.
Hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was reported along Clark Station Road between Fisherville and Eastwood.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning, Madison | 2013-08-21 | 25 | Male | Permanent Structure | Direct |
| Lightning, Madison | 2013-08-21 | 29 | Male | Permanent Structure | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kentucky in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Kentucky, August 2013
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 462367, 462329, 462330, 462356, 462343, 462345, 462347, 462333, 462319, 462327, 462324.