Live updates: At least 2 confirmed tornadoes, injuries reported. Thousands without power

Updated 5:45 a.m.

A major storm sprinted across Kentucky overnight Wednesday into early Thursday morning, bringing heavy rain, hail, thunder, lightning and at least one tornado.

Right behind that system, blamed for at least one death nationally, will be near-continuous rain that will last until Sunday evening.

Parts of Western Kentucky could see more than 15 inches of rain by the end of the weekend, while Lexington is forecast to see 6 to 8 inches.

Here’s the latest from the Herald-Leader staff:

Power outages

More than 42,800 Kentuckians were without power in the aftermath of Thursday morning’s storms that brought rain, hail and at least one tornado to the state.

As of 9 a.m., that number had declined to approximately 31,000.

According to poweroutage.us, a website that tracks power outages across the country, Menifee County in Eastern Kentucky had the most outages, with around 75% of the county without power. Also affected were Campbell, Casey, Lincoln, Pendleton, Johnson, Powell and Franklin counties, with smaller outages around the state.

At least two confirmed tornadoes

At least two tornadoes touched down in Kentucky during severe weather that began Wednesday night and swept across the state overnight.

A tornado was reported near Murray around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, and another was reported in Louisville, near Middletown, early Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

Another tornado may have touched down in Ballard County, near Gage in far Western Kentucky, where four people were injured and one person is in critical condition, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, which includes preliminary data about storms. The NWS also received reports from Madisonville and McCracken County.

More tornadoes could be confirmed on Thursday as the sun comes up and storm damage can be assessed. The risk of severe weather continues through the weekend, with more storms and rain expected through Saturday.

Severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings continued throughout the state on Thursday morning.

Several reports of damage in Jefferson County

Several parts of Jefferson County reported damage from the overnight storms, according to the National Weather Service.

There were reports of multiple trees down and damaged homes in Beckley Hills subdivision. More damage was reported in the Saint Matthews and Okolona communities.

There was also a report of a partial building collapse on Ampere Drive, according to the NWS, and a tree down on a car on Palatka Road.

What areas got the strongest winds?

Several Kentucky counties reported wind gusts of more than 50 mph. Muhlenberg County had a 72 mph wind gust in the Powderly community.

Adair, Ballard and Metcalfe counties all reported wind gusts of more than 60 mph, according to the NWS. Other counties that had at least 50 mph wind gusts were Barren, Breckinridge, Clark, Grayson, Hardin, Harrison, Henderson, Jefferson, Lincoln, Nicholas, Oldham, Simpson, Union and Warren counties.

After Wednesday’s storm system, what’s next?

The National Weather Service in Paducah expects to be busy in the coming days as it surveys damage from a number of possible tornadoes.

“We have A LOT of damage surveys to do and have several planned for tomorrow and the days following,” the weather service said in a social media post early Thursday.

The strong storms that moved across the state Wednesday night and early Thursday might be a precursor to more severe weather, said WKYT Chief Meteorologist Chris Bailey.

“This is not a one-and-done event. This is a multi-day event of severe weather,” Bailey said on-air early Thursday. “Tomorrow night, we could be doing this again.”

Steady rain and more thunderstorms are expected over the next several days, including the potential for some “supercell thunderstorms” later in the day Thursday in the areas around London, Corbin and Somerset in southeastern and south-central Kentucky, Bailey said.

He said some storms also could begin popping up in the Bowling Green area around noon Thursday.

Bailey said the region may get a break later Friday and part of the day Saturday. But by Saturday evening, he said, there’s the potential for more severe weather ahead of a cold front.

Widespread flooding is possible, the National Weather Service warned.

Bailey and WKYT meteorologist Jim Caldwell said Fayette County had gotten nearly an inch of rain in just one hour leading up to 3 a.m.

Tornado warnings issued to area north and south of Lexington

While the weather in Lexington was calmer as of about 3 a.m., tornado warnings were issued south of Lexington and north.

Garrard, Lincoln, Boyle and southern Madison counties were under a tornado warning until 3:45 a.m.

To the northeast of Lexington, a tornado warning was issued for Montgomery, Fleming, Bath and Nicholas counties.

Radar showed a massive wave of potentially harmful weather, with wind gusts near 70 mph, headed to Eastern Kentucky.

Meteorologists were keeping a close eye on high winds just west of Berea and Interstate 75 at 3:20 a.m.

Heavy rain, hail and high winds hitting Lexington

Torrents of rain hit many Lexington neighborhoods on Man ‘o War near Tates Creek around 2:35 a.m. Lightning strikes were plentiful and hail, in some cases nickle-sized, fell. The heart of the much-anticipated storm was centered over downtown Lexington.

“It’s non-stop lightning,” said WKYT meteorologist Chris Bailey.

He also pointed out Lexington and Fayette County have not had an official tornado touchdown since May 2004. An EF-3 twister ripped through the northwest corner of Lexington and Masterson Station.

Tornado warning for Fayette, Jessamine, Woodford counties

Lexington, Nicholasville and Wilmore are under a tornado warning until 2:45 a.m.

Bailey and Caldwell said the strong winds and possible tornado were visible on radar along the U.S. 27 corridor in Mercer County heading toward Nicholasville and Lexington.

Rumbles of thunder could be heard near Tates Creek Road at 2:23 a.m.

Tornado confirmed near Louisville

More than 8,000 people were without power after the storm hit Louisville. A confirmed tornado hit near Middletown just after 12:30 a.m., the Courier-Journal reported. Damage was unknown.

The worst of the winds are scooting past Georgetown, with forecasters around 2 a.m. predicting the worst of the weather is about to hit the outskirts of Lexington, especially in the northern communities near Masterson Station and Kentucky Horse Park.

Tornado, thunderstorm warnings issued in Central Kentucky

A tornado warning was issued for the Lexington metro area until 2 a.m. WKYT Chief Meteorologist Chris Bailey said anyone on Interstate 64 in Fayette County should seek shelter, as should those on the north side of town and around the Kentucky Horse Park and Masterson Station.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Georgetown, Paris, Cynthiana, Frankfort, Lawrenceburg and Versailles until 2 a.m., with winds of up to 60 mph and small hail possible.

The fast-moving system that roared across the commonwealth late Wednesday into Thursday morning was traveling at about 80 mph, meteorologists said. That is faster than one can travel legally on the Bluegrass Parkway, Bailey said.

At 1:45 a.m., he advised residents in the Lexington, Versailles and Lawrenceburg areas to head to the basement. Or, at a minimum, put on construction hard hats.

Central Kentucky included in tornado watch covering multiple states

Fayette and surrounding counties are under a tornado watch until 7 a.m. Thursday.

The watch covers a large swath of Kentucky and extends across central Tennessee and into northern Mississippi and a small section of Alabama.

The National Weather Service said scattered wind gusts of up to 70 mph are likely, along with the possibility of tornadoes and hail that could be the size of ping pong balls.

Just south of Bardstown, “serious straight-line winds” were hitting the area. “That could be a small hit-and-run tornado” in the area, WKYT-TV’s Chris Bailey said.

Tornado warning issued for Louisville

Louisville, Saint Matthews and Shively were under a tornado warning until 12:30 a.m., the National Weather Service said, as were several locations across the river in Indiana, including Jeffersonville, Clarksville, New Albany and Charlestown.

‘Worst of the weather’ coming around 1 a.m.

Meteorologist Chris Bailey on WKYT’s First Alert Weather said he was planning to track the storms throughout the evening and early morning. The fast-moving system that rolled into Western Kentucky is headed to Central Kentucky sometime after midnight.

Residents should expect heavy rains, plenty of thunder and lightning and high winds.

Damaging winds and possible tornadoes would be heading toward Louisville and Elizabethtown over the next hour, Bailey said in a social media post at about 11:30 p.m.

Report of damage in Ballard County

Four people were injured in Gage, one of them critically, when they took shelter in a vehicle under a carport at a church Wednesday night, Ballard County Emergency Management said.

All four were taken to a hospital.

The church sustained “severe structural damage” after being hit by debris from an apparent tornado that also left multiple buildings and homes in the community with “significant damage,” the emergency management office said in a Facebook post.

Officials said they would begin damage assessments Thursday morning.

WPSD also said there were downed power lines and utility poles near the Gage community on Kentucky 286.

Tornado near Murray

WKYT Chief Meteorologist Chris Bailey said at about 10:45 p.m. that there was “a confirmed large and dangerous tornado near Murray in western Kentucky.”

The National Weather Service in Louisville said at 9:41 p.m. that people in the area should seek shelter immediately because of a “tornado on the ground” north of Madisonville. The NWS said the tornado was “about to cross I-69.”

Just before 11 p.m., meteorologists at The Weather Channel, during their broadcast, said “intense storms” and “big winds” were rumbling through Madisonville, just north of Interstate 69. The wave was expected to hit Lexington and Central Kentucky after midnight.

Strong winds to precede storms in Lexington, shelters open

The National Weather Service in Louisville warned: “Expect a brief period of 55 mph wind gusts, without any storms or necessarily any rain in the area, as a wave moves up through Louisville and Bardstown, and eventually Frankfort and Lexington.”

The Catholic Action Center said it and Lighthouse Ministries are offering shelter at 190 Spruce St. for people without housing during the storms. The shelter was scheduled to open at 8 p.m. Wednesday and remain open until Sunday.

In Western Kentucky, tornado warnings were in effect in a number of counties, including Caldwell, Hopkins, Lyon, Calloway, Graves, Lyon, Marshall and Trigg.

Line of storms hits Kentucky with severe thunderstorm, tornado warnings

The line of severe storms that arrived in West Kentucky Wednesday evening did so with near-immediate tornado warnings.

Warm temperatures, strong winds and high dew points created an ideal environment for severe storms, which moved across the region and into Kentucky around 8 p.m. EST Wednesday night.

By early evening, much of West Kentucky was already under a tornado watch. A few hours later, a sizable chunk of the western part of the state was under a tornado warning.

“The atmosphere is really prime for rotation, as well as very strong winds and, likely, tornadoes to develop. And we could see a couple of very large tornadoes before all is said and done,” Mark Daniels, Paducah’s WPSD-TV Channel 6’s chief meteorologist, told his viewing area early Wednesday evening.

The system, which has already produced tornadoes in other states, carries the potential for “long-track tornadoes,” he said.

A few “renegade” storm clusters arrived ahead of the main storm front, bringing tornado warnings with them, including in Simpson and Warren counties. Other nearby Kentucky counties were issued severe thunderstorm warnings.

Louisville has a 45% chance of damaging winds and EF-2 or stronger tornadoes are possible across much of central Kentucky.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Wednesday, hours before much of Kentucky was forecast to be hit with strong storms and persistent torrential rains. Tornadoes, high winds and hail are expected across much of the state Wednesday night.

Beshear called the storms among “the most serious weather threats I’ve seen,” urging all Kentuckians to take the forecast seriously and have a plan of action in case of an emergency.

“Tornadoes are expected, and I know that’s tough to hear. And we are most concerned about the area of Western Kentucky that has gotten hit far too much, as well as a wider area of Western Kentucky,” Beshear said earlier on Wednesday.

“Remember, these can be strong tornadoes, EF-2 and greater,” he added. “We’re really concerned about people’s safety, especially in the overnight, because when storms or tornadoes hit while people are asleep, that’s sadly when we’ve lost the most people.”

The storm system is expected to last roughly four days. After severe storms subside Thursday, the biggest concern will become flooding. Near-continuous rain through Saturday will dump upwards of 10 inches of rain on much of the state, potentially as much as 15 inches in Western Kentucky.

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 6:30 PM.