During the early morning, a nearly stationary cluster of thunderstorms produced close to 5 inches of rain in just a few hours around Murray. The storms formed in association with a weak mid-level shortwave trough passing across the Lower Ohio Valley.
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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 PAH wrote it up.
During the early morning, a nearly stationary cluster of thunderstorms produced close to 5 inches of rain in just a few hours around Murray. The storms formed in association with a weak mid-level shortwave trough passing across the Lower Ohio Valley. A light southeast to south wind flow of moist air in the lower levels contributed to the high rainfall rates. Another cluster of storms in the late afternoon hours caused isolated wind damage in Graves County.
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 Paducah, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 24, 10:56 PM CST, 1 hour 4 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 1156 PM CDT Sat May 24 2014 .UPDATE... Updated aviation section for 06z tafs && .SHORT TERM...(Tonight through Monday night) Issued at 226 PM CDT SAT MAY 24 2014 Not much to hang your hat on in the short term. A rather wimpy H5 ridge attempts to build northward across our part of the world through the period and models are not in good agreement on its strength and ability to snuff out chances or convection. Throughout the short term period, flow through the entire atmospheric column is AOB 10 knots. Outside of any outflow boundaries that showers or thunderstorms may lay down, the only forcing will be caused by the heat of the day. In the meantime with decent low level moisture and limited instability over the southwest half of our CWA, showers and/or thunderstorms could pop up just about anywhere in this area through the afternoon hours. Soundings over this area this afternoon not impressive at all. Not much CAPE and with decent CIN, don't expect much to happen so kept chc pops or less. With the loss of heating, expect pops to drop off considerably after sunset except maybe over the far western sections of our CWA. With little to no change to the synoptic scenario, expect precipitation chances Sunday and Sunday night to be much the same as today and tonight. Even though not great, the best chances for showers and thunderstorms area wide appear to be on Monday as the aforementioned H5 ridge breaks down a tad and/or shifts slightly eastward depending on which model solution you buy into. Model soundings look much better on Monday as well, so have pops everywhere. Monday night it looks like precipitation chances will be confined to the far northern and western sections around the periphery of the ridge. Temperatures will remain at or above normal through the period. .LONG TERM...(Tuesday through Saturday) Issued at 226 PM CDT SAT MAY 24 2014 A warm and unsettled weather pattern (typical summer time) is expected throughout most of the extended period. At the beginning of the period, there will be an upper ridge across the area with a troublesome upper level low pressure system, that will have migrated into the Central Plains from the Four Corners Region. While most of the precipitation associated with this upper system will be to the west of the CWA, parts of southeast MO look to have the best chances to see some convection. Models differ on how to handle the progression of this upper level system, which makes things a bit challenging. However, there seems to be enough moisture and instability to warrant the inclusion of afternoon showers/storms. Very weak flow aloft means the possibility of slow moving storms...and due to the amount of instability, we could see a few pulsy severe cells. But trying to find a decent signal in model QPF with nothing too significant at the sfc and varying solutions of the upper air pattern to focus on, makes one not want to stray too far from just some 20-30% POPS for diurnal convection. However, due to the proximity of the upper low to our west, will raise pops higher in parts of SEMO early in the extended period. Differences in the overall pattern are pretty stout even further out in time between the models. By Thursday night into Friday, the GFS brings a front through the area and then dries things out for the weekend. Hard to find any semblence of a front on the ECMWF. If there was, there is not much identity to it once it slides south toward our area. Should not see temps stray too much from mid 80s during the day and mid 60s at night. Dewpoints will likely stay in the mid/upr 60s, so humidity will be up a bit. But if that front does come through by the end of the week and into the weekend, we will see the air dry out a bit, along with temperatures dropping a few degrees in spots. && .AVIATION... Issued at 1156 PM CDT SAT MAY 24 2014 Isolated thunderstorms continue to hang tough just south of kpah as of 05z. These storms are associated with a warm front. The activity along this front should diminish by sunrise...and no impacts are expected at taf sites tonight. Only cigs above 10k feet are expected overnight...though a scattered layer of lower clouds may arrive late tonight. As the warm front moves north across the kcgi/kpah areas on Sunday...some thunderstorms will likely develop after the sun has time to destabilize the atmosphere. Maintained vcts at those taf sites...but kevv/kowb should remain mainly north of the front and its associated storms. && .PAH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IL...NONE. MO...NONE. IN...NONE. KY...NONE. && SHORT TERM...JP LONG TERM/FIRE WX...CW AVIATION...MY
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 700 PM CDT SAT MAY 24 2014 ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087- 100-107>112-114-252015- JEFFERSON-WAYNE IL-EDWARDS-WABASH-PERRY IL-FRANKLIN-HAMILTON- WHITE-JACKSON-WILLIAMSON-SALINE-GALLATIN-UNION IL-JOHNSON-POPE- HARDIN-ALEXANDER-PULASKI-MASSAC-GIBSON-PIKE-POSEY-VANDERBURGH- WARRICK-SPENCER-FULTON-HICKMAN-CARLISLE-BALLARD-MCCRACKEN-GRAVES- LIVINGSTON-MARSHALL-CALLOWAY-CRITTENDEN-LYON-TRIGG-CALDWELL- UNION KY-WEBSTER-HOPKINS-CHRISTIAN-HENDERSON-DAVIESS-MCLEAN- MUHLENBERG-TODD-PERRY MO-BOLLINGER-CAPE GIRARDEAU-WAYNE MO-CARTER- RIPLEY-BUTLER-STODDARD-SCOTT-MISSISSIPPI-NEW MADRID- 700 PM CDT SAT MAY 24 2014 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS...SOUTHWEST INDIANA...WESTERN KENTUCKY AND SOUTHEAST MISSOURI. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE NEAR THE TENNESSEE AND ARKANSAS STATE LINES WITH WEST KENTUCKY AND SOUTHEAST MISSOURI EARLY TONIGHT. THE WEAKENING TREND WITH THEIR NORTHWARD DRIFT WILL CONTINUE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE OVER ALL OR PARTS OF THE REGION MAINLY DURING THE DAYTIME HOURS EACH DAY THROUGH THE PERIOD. WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. JP
The Paducah radar (KPAH), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 06:01 UTC.
1 heavy rain, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
From four to five inches of rain fell in the Murray area. Water was over roadways. One resident reported basement flooding. A rain gage along the Clarks River maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey measured 5.12 inches in about three hours. One inch fell in 15 minutes.
A barn was heavily damaged. The barn was large enough to store tractors and large farm implements. Large pieces of metal roofing and/or siding were blown 50 to 100 feet. The roof and back wall of the structure were damaged the most. The barn was open towards the north. Some tree branches were also downed by the winds.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kentucky in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in Kentucky, May 2014
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: 512562, 512603.