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Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

A Pacific storm is bringing areas of low elevation rain, moderate to heavy mountain snow, and high winds to the Northwest. Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry conditions are producing elevated to critical fire weather conditions in southern California. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of northeast Texas into western Tennessee. Read More >

Clusters of showers and thunderstorms began affecting central and eastern Kentucky during the pre-dawn hours of Friday April 3rd.  The initial complex of thunderstorms targeted areas from Louisville across the Bluegrass Region in parts of east-central Kentucky, including the Natural Bridge State Park area.  While these storms were not severe, they did produce gusty winds which downed a dead tree onto a camping site in the Middle Fork Campground killing a female camper and severely injuring another person. 

Torrential rainfall occurred with the storms, with many locations in a stripe from Estill, Powell, Lee, Wolfe and Breathitt Counties seeing from three to four inches of rain during the morning storms.  This caused widespread flash flooding and a Lee County woman was killed as she tried to drive through flood waters. 

After a brief break, additional showers and thunderstorms targeted locations from Lexington eastward along I-64 into the Gateway Region Friday evening.  This again caused widespread flash flooding in a stripe from Montgomery, Bath, Rowan and Elliott Counties.

The maps below show how much rain fell based on an array of automated and human read rain gauges. 

 

Below is a listing of storm total rainfall amounts for several east Kentucky observing locations...

ID    : Station Name (County)       Pcpn
CRLK2 : Cave Run Lake (Rowan)       5.78
CSYK2 : Cressy (Estill)             5.35
BCAK2 : Beattyville 4n (Lee)        4.63
SDHK2 : Sandy Hook (Elliott)        4.63
STAK2 : Stanton 2W (Powell)         4.63
MRHDKY: Morehead 4NE (Rowan)        4.52
PRSTKY: Owingsville 4S (Bath)       4.51
JKL   : NWS Jackson (Breathitt)     4.50
KYRW03: Morehead 6.4NE (Rowan)      4.30
CAVK2 : Clover Bottom (Jackson)     4.29
QKSDKY: Jackson 3SE (Breathitt)     3.95
GIMK2 : Gimlet (Elliott)            3.92
TRMK2 : Triangle Mtn (Rowan)        3.84
FLEK2 : Flemingsburg 2N (Fleming)   3.59
KOMK2 : Koomer Ridge (Wolfe)        3.45
WELK2 : Wellington (Menifee)        3.13
EZLK2 : Ezel (Morgan)               3.06
PELK2 : Prestonsburg 3WSW (Floyd)   2.87
WLBTKY: West Liberty 2SW (Morgan)   2.85
INEK2 : Inez 2E (Martin)            2.54
BSAK2 : Big Sandy Apt (Martin)      2.48
BTCKKY: Paintsville 4W (Johnson)    2.42
PNVK2 : Paintsville 1E (Johnson)    2.39
BNVLKY: Booneville 2S (Owsley)      2.38
MTVK2 : Mount Vernon (Rockcastle)   2.21
KYBE01: Talbert 2ESE (Breathitt)    2.20
VESTKY: Hindman 5N (Knott)          2.12
SSTK2 : Somerset 2N (Pulaski)       2.12
KYRC02: Brodhead 7SSW (Rockcastle)  2.07
FLRKKY: Whitley City 3N (McCreary)  1.72
BUCK2 : Buckhorn Lake (Perry)       1.71
OLINKY: McKee 5S (Jackson)          1.69
ICYK2 : Island City (Owsley)        1.64
BMBLKY: Barbourville 3E (Knox)      1.57
WWPK2 : Williamsburg 1NW (Whitley)  1.48
CHTK2 : Peabody RAWS (Clay)         1.37
BUNK2 : Bunch (Laurel)              1.35
DORTKY: Pikeville 13S (Pike)        1.34
SOMK2 : Somerset (Pulaski)          1.32
EKQ   : Monticello AWOS (Wayne)     1.28
BXTK2 : Baxter (Harlan)             1.16
KYWY01: Monticello 9W (Wayne)       1.12
LOZ   : London Corbin Apt (Laurel)  1.05
SKLK2 : Skyline (Letcher)           0.92
CFLK2 : Carr Creek Lake (Knott)     0.92
WHBK2 : Whitesburg 2SE (Letcher)    0.82
WTBGKY: Whitesburg 2NW (Letcher)    0.70
WHTK2 : Whitesburg (Letcher)        0.66