Strong winds and flash floods help give this county the worst weather in KY, report says
Jefferson County may have the worst weather in all of Kentucky, according to a new report from digital data journalism outlet Stacker.com.
In its analysis, Stacker suggests a high number of severe weather events in the commonwealth’s most populous county make it the worst in Kentucky.
“Flash flooding is problematic in Jefferson County, where Louisville is situated,” the report reads. “Residents blame the local sewer authority for blocked drains and inadequate maintenance, but officials with the Metropolitan Sewer District say heavy rains can easily overwhelm the system.”
The county observed roughly 504 severe weather events between 2010 and 2020, averaging out to 45.8 such events per year. According to the analysis, powered by severe weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the most commonly observed events were thunderstorms with strong winds (21.9 per year), followed by flash floods (nine per year) and hail (6.4 per year).
Jefferson County’s total number of severe weather events sits in the middle of the pack compared to the rest of the country. No county had more than El Paso County in Colorado, where about 905 severe weather events were reported between 2010 and 2020, Stacker says. High elevation helps fuel frequent hail storms in the spring and summer there, according to the report.
One of the most prominent severe weather events in recent Kentucky history occurred in early March. Severe storms deployed record-setting, hurricane-force winds throughout large swaths of the commonwealth, resulting in widespread power outages, closures and at least four deaths.
Catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky took at least 45 lives in July 2022 and destroyed homes, businesses, churches, roadways and more, while a tornado killed at least 15 people in Bowling Green in December 2021.
Subsequent analyses predict more frequent extreme weather events for much of Kentucky, and some counties could see “1-in-a-100-year storms” once a decade.
You can read Stacker’s full analysis for each state by visiting stacker.com/weather/county-most-severe-weather-every-state.
Jefferson County’s severe weather
Between May 2022 and May 2023, Jefferson County observed at least 42 severe weather events, according to NOAA’s Storm Events Database. More recent data is not yet available, the agency says.
Most of these events were categorized as thunderstorms with strong winds, while a few instances of hail-producing storms, flash floods and winter storms were also reported. Additionally, at least five low-grade tornadoes touched down in Jefferson County between late March and early May.
So far this year, the Louisville area is keeping pace with typical precipitation rates. According to the National Weather Service, the area has reported roughly 34.22 inches of precipitation since January, falling just shy of an average year’s 34.73 inches of precipitation reported through Sept. 11. The Louisville area is far below 1950’s record 50.48 inches of reported precipitation through mid-September.
You can browse past weather and current forecasts for Northern and Central Kentucky by visiting weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=lmk.
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