‘Unfortunate, perfect combination of ingredients’ in storm slams Central KY
A possible tornado hit Washington County Friday morning, killing at least one and injuring seven.
The National Weather Service in Louisville began tracking the storm at 5 a.m. over Hart County. That was between 50-75 miles away from the suspected tornado that hit Washington County around 6:50 a.m., meteorologist Chase Graham said.
Gov. Andy Beshear said the level of severe weather was unexpected.
Graham said it can be difficult to give advanced warnings for quick storms like the one that hit Friday.
“What we had today, this morning, was these quick rotations that can come, pop up and be gone in five or 10 minutes. It’s a little bit more difficult to have lead time,” he told the Herald-Leader.
“But we were watching that cell, and we did have some kind of warning on it through most of its lifetime.”
There was no tornado siren in the area to warn people, Washington County officials said at an 11 a.m. briefing.
The National Weather Service did not issue a tornado watch for the storm, but did issue various tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings that could bring possible tornadoes.
Severe thunderstorm with tornado possible warnings are issued when conditions are “almost to the point of issuing a tornado warning, but we just are falling a little bit below the criteria,” Graham said.
A tornado watch is issued when conditions are favorable for a tornado to form. Those can come hours before a tornado actually hits.
A tornado warning is issued when rotation happens.
Did the NWS issue a tornado warning for Washington County?
The Louisville office issued the first warning for the storm cell at 5:22 a.m. That was a tornado warning for Green, LaRue and Hart Counties.
The storm continued to travel northeast and garnered another tornado warning at 6:03 a.m. for Green, LaRue, Marion and Taylor Counties.
By the time the storm cell got near Washington County at 6:46 a.m., the NWS had downgraded the tornado warning to a severe thunderstorm warning with the possibility of a tornado for Washington, Boyle, Mercer and Marion Counties.
At 6:49 a.m., those same areas were issued a tornado warning.
The final tornado warning on the storm cell was issued at 7:27 a.m. for Mercer, Garrard and Jessamine counties.
“We tracked that cell from around Hart County all the way to just southeast of Lexington, and then at that point the storm kind of weakened, and so we weren’t tracking it as closely at that point,” Graham said.
Washington County hit with tornado 2 weeks after London, Somerset
Friday’s storm comes just two weeks after London and Somerset were devastated by tornadoes. Those twisters resulted from multiple storm cells, Graham said, which allowed the National Weather Service to issue advanced watches and warnings.
The storm that hit Washington County was a single storm call, making it harder to predict.
“That one cell that was able to produce the severe weather, whereas a few weeks ago we had multiple cells that were producing hail and wind and tornadoes,” Graham said.
“This was kind of more of a marginal event, and we just happened to have that one cell that had the unfortunate, perfect combination of ingredients to produce damage.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 12:21 PM.