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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has declared a state of emergency ahead of severe storms expected Friday afternoon and evening.

The National Weather Service in Louisville expects severe weather beginning Friday afternoon into the evening, potentially bringing damaging winds, “very large” hail, heavy rain and tornadoes, the agency warned.

“Once again we have a dangerous weather system sweeping across the commonwealth,” Gov. Beshear stated in a Friday afternoon release. “We expect a significant round of weather coming this afternoon and into tonight that will produce strong winds that could lead to power outages, a possibility of hail, flooding and potential for tornadoes. We need everyone to be really careful and make sure you have weather alerts on and are at a location where you can seek safety if needed.”

The latest round of storm follows days of relentless rain in early April which sent rivers cresting to historic levels across Kentucky.

Friday, rainfall and severe weather could lead to hazardous travel conditions in the western and central parts of the Bluegrass State. Here’s the latest forecast information.

The initial wave Friday brought rain and wind gusts to Lexington, with another round of storms expected Friday afternoon, the NWS warned in its key messages briefing, an updated version of which was released around 3:30 p.m.

This second, stronger wave of severe storms are expected to develop over southeast Missouri this afternoon and move across Indiana and Kentucky. According to the NWS, those storms could bring damaging winds — possibly hurricane force of 74 mph or more — large to very large hail, torrential rainfall and potentially strong tornadoes.

Most of the state, from Lexington to Paducah, is under a moderate risk in the severe weather outlook, which has a high overall confidence.

In an earlier forecast Thursday, the weather service projected the timing of the storms to move across Kentucky between 3 p.m. and 1 a.m. EDT.

In addition to the rain that has already fallen on Fayette County since midnight, NWS meteorologist Mark Jarvis told the Herald-Leader Friday morning the area could see another 1 to 3 inches of rainfall Friday afternoon and overnight.

“If that comes down pretty quickly, we could have some flooding problems,” Jarvis said, adding it’s why the agency has issued a flash flood watch that includes the Lexington area. It’s in effect until 4 a.m. Saturday, Jarvis said.

The bottom line, Jarvis said, is minor flooding is possible this afternoon and tonight in the Lexington area. Given that possibility, drivers should heed road closures and avoid driving through floodwaters.

Due to “ongoing severe weather forecasts” and standing water in several low-lying areas of the county, Floyd County schools officials announced in a Facebook post Friday they will not dismiss students at the regularly scheduled times.

Early dismissal was not possible shortly after 2 p.m. Friday, they said. Buses and students will remain at school until district officials determine it is safe to proceed with dismissal.

The situation is somewhat complicated and largely depends on the development and action of thunderstorms later in the afternoon, Jarvis said.

If you’re in the Lexington area and you do need to travel, Jarvis recommends wrapping that up by 7 p.m. Friday night and holding off until about midnight or 1 a.m. The storm is projected to move through the area between those hours and could pose hazards for drivers, including downed power lines, Jarvis said.

Tornadoes remain possible in Central Kentucky from Friday afternoon to midnight, though Jarvis noted the risk is more significant in the western part of the state, particularly near Paducah, Owensboro, Madisonville, and Hopkinsville.

Recent reporting by the Herald-Leader and other media outlets found Kentucky’s three NWS offices have been hobbled by low staffing levels as a result of President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut federal workforce spending.

Asked about staffing levels at the agency’s Louisville office Friday, Jarvis declined to say exactly how many meteorologists were on staff there beyond saying the amount was “sufficient” for operations.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Gov. Andy Beshear urged Kentuckians to turn on their weather alerts, a message echoed by the NWS Friday.

These storms are expected to produce damaging winds, large hail, tornadoes and torrential rainfall.Folks, this is a serious threat. Please have weather alerts on and do what's needed to stay safe. 3/3

— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) May 15, 2025

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Reporter Valarie Honeycutt Spears contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 10:59 AM.

Lexington Herald-Leader

Aaron Mudd is a service journalism reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader, Centre Daily Times and Belleville News-Democrat. He is based at the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky. Support my work with a digital subscription

Kentucky is expected to get severe weather Thursday and Friday evening, with Friday night’s storm projecting to be the strongest, according to the National Weather Service.

Thursday night’s storm is projected to develop southwest of Kentucky and weaken as it travels to the commonwealth, according to the NWS. The western half of the state is under the slight risk zone (2 out of 5) for severe weather, while the eastern half of the state, including Lexington, is under the marginal risk zone (1 out of 5).

If the storm maintains intensity when it arrives in Kentucky, though, large hail, damaging winds and a possible tornado are all possible. The NWS said the storm is projected to move into the area between 7 p.m. and midnight.

NWS forecasters said the main threat is large hail, and there is a low but non-zero risk for locally damaging winds or tornadoes.

Another wave of storms may develop between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., but confidence in that system is lower, according to the NWS.

Friday’s storm is projected to be severe. The western half of the state is under the moderate risk zone (4 out of 5) for severe weather, while the eastern half of the state, including Lexington, is under the enhanced risk zone (3 out of 5), according to the NWS.

The hazards in play for Friday’s storm are damaging winds, large hail, potentially strong tornadoes and torrential rainfall, according to the NWS. There is also a small chance for localized flash flooding, but the main threats are the hazards.

The severe storms are expected to arrive in Western Kentucky around 3 p.m. and travel west, according to the NWS. The storm is forecast to be over Lexington between 6 to 9 p.m.

️Strong storms will develop west of the area and move towards us tonight️Severe storms on Friday bringing all hazardsHere are some graphics that describe the threats for each day and the general timing for FridayRemain weather aware tonight and tomorrow pic.twitter.com/lHncVtT69f

— NWS Louisville (@NWSLouisville) May 15, 2025

NWS forecasters said Friday’s storm threat is dependent on how quickly the atmosphere can recover from Thursday night and Friday morning’s convection — the vertical transport of heat and moisture in the atmosphere. NWS officials and Gov. Andy Beshear encouraged people to stay alert and prepare for severe weather.

“More severe weather is expected Friday across the state with hail, damaging winds, torrential rainfall and the possibility of strong tornadoes,” Beshear said in a post on X. “Please have your alerts on and stay safe, everyone.”

More severe weather is expected Friday across the state with hail, damaging winds, torrential rainfall and the possibility of strong tornadoes. Please have your alerts on and stay safe, everyone. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/EGGE42mMjl

— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) May 15, 2025

One of Laurel County’ s most well-known former residents returned Saturday to help clean up after a devastating series of storms ripped through Laurel and Pulaski counties.

Reed Sheppard, a former North Laurel High School basketball star who now plays for the Houston Rockets, was spotted in Laurel County helping neighbors pick up storm debris.

Joshua Maxey said in a Facebook post Sheppard called him Saturday after he heard a likely tornado had hit southern Kentucky, leveling possibly hundreds of homes and businesses and causing at least 17 deaths in the county.

The total death toll from the storms now stands at 18, including one death in Pulaski County.

“Reed knew the devastation his hometown received and wanted to do something to help. He called me up to ask what he could do, I said ‘just show up man, I’ll pick you up in 20 minutes,’” according to Maxey’s Facebook post.

Sheppard showed up.

And the two men quickly got to work.

“We’ve worked like dogs for the best part of the day and he picked up belongings, toys, roofs, 2x4’s and everything you can imagine,” Maxey said.

Sheppard also met with people, heard their stories and shared in their sorrow and grief, Maxey said.

“He is the epitome of raised right and going above and beyond,” Maxey said in his post that also included several photos of the former Mr. Kentucky Basketball.

Sheppard played for the University of Kentucky during the 2023-2024 season, averaging 12.5 points per game. He was drafted in the first round with the third overall pick by the Houston Rockets in 2024.

Sheppard might not approve of Maxey boasting about his friend’s good deeds, Maxey said.

“He will wanna kill me for taking these pictures but I couldn’t help it, the world needs to knows there’s still good people that don’t forget where they came from,” Maxey wrote.

This story was originally published May 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

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A violent storm system ripped across Kentucky, destroying homes, businesses and at least one church. Multiple fatalities have been confirmed.

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Editor’s note: Herald-Leader Opinion Columnist Linda Blackford hustled to Laurel County Saturday morning to canvass the area and share observations. Here is her account of what she saw at the pummeled Sunshine Hills subdivision.

Search-and-rescue crews were racing house-to-house in this Laurel County neighborhood Saturday morning, looking for survivors or those who may be trapped on the heels of a roaring storm and apparent tornado that ravaged Southern Kentucky.

Rescuers combed through the devastation at Sunshine Hills outside London on Keavy Road in Laurel County. Sheared-off roofs and collapsed walls were spotted on the road that winds through the neighborhood.

It’s a quiet scene of absolute destruction; as if a bomb just exploded.

Brick homes were open to the sky; cabinets and kitchenware spilled out to the ground. A dining area that was once the likely center of a family’s home is now smashed and scattered on the front lawn.

It looks like there’s a path of damage at least a mile deep through the subdivision. Homes on both sides of the road are in ruins.

Debris is scattered everywhere, with remnants of children’s clothing, tattered bath towels and busted screens strewn about.

In the front yard of what appeared to be a mobile home with its roof peeled away, a lonely, unbroken wooden rocking chair stood sentinel. It looked to be in fine condition, a sharp contrast to nearby splintered drywall and busted windows.

A red pickup truck was covered with belongings from a nearby home or possibly a garage or tool shed. It held steady in the face of the overnight system. It had not been lifted; it wasn’t toppled over.

As of 10:30 Saturday morning, the National Weather Service had yet to declare the monster that roared through Laurel and Pulaski counties as a tornado. But it’s apparent a violent force of nature chewed up homes, trees and vehicles in the dark of night.

It went through the subdivision with a surgical precision. While Sunshine Hills was ravaged, homes just outside of the subdivision were still standing Saturday morning. Some sustained very mild damage; others showed neither sign nor strain of an apparent twister.

Standing in the middle of the neighborhood, it was impossible to not flash back to vivid and similar destructive scenes from Dawson Springs, the Western Kentucky community that was devastated by the Dec.. 10, 2021, weather pattern that included an EF-4 tornado.

That system was the deadliest and longest-tracked tornado in an outbreak that spawned numerous strong twisters in several states, including Kentucky. It caused 57 deaths.

The death toll in the commonwealth Saturday morning stood at 14, with whispers that it will spike even higher by day’s end. By 3:30 p.m., at least 18 were confirmed dead.

The same eerie feeling of lives disrupted or stolen by Mother Nature’s wrath could be felt Saturday in the subdivision.

Outside of rescue crews, few people roamed what remains of Sunshine Hills.

Authorities were keeping property owners away for the time being.

Delaying their quest to sift through the rubble and piece together lives that likely will never be the same.

This story was originally published May 17, 2025 at 10:39 AM.

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A violent storm system ripped across Kentucky, destroying homes, businesses and at least one church. Multiple fatalities have been confirmed.

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St. Louis was the first warning.

A severe thunderstorm system, likely a tornado, ripped through an unusually urban swath of the city Friday afternoon, killing at least five people there.

“We had storms initiate in what was a very unstable environment, extremely unstable,” St. Louis National Weather Service meteorologist Lydia Jaja told the Herald-Leader. “Instability is how efficient air particles are rising, and that air rose and it pretty much went ‘boom.’

“St Louis just had the perfect storm of an environment to produce a tornado.”

That perfect storm raked through 350 miles of forest and pasture and hit the communities of Somerset and London, killing at least 18 people late Friday night into Saturday morning.

How did it persist for so long?

Jaja said a key to the system’s longevity was a cold front sweeping from West to East.

Cold fronts can be an ingredient in the creation of “supercells,” the rotating thunderstorms characterized by anvil-like clouds that can often result in tornadoes.

“The cold front that spawned all of these supercells just kept on pushing east, and more of the same kept happening. Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri — we just kept on getting more supercells with more tornado warnings,” Jaja said.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the cool, dense air moving in can cause the existing warm, less dense air to move upward. That causes wind shear.

Wind shear is defined as the difference in wind speed or direction over a short distance. It is one key element of the formation of a tornado because the differences can cause rotation within a storm.

The cold front showed in the dramatic temperature change.

Around 1:00 a.m., it was 77 degrees in Somerset. At 2:30 a.m., the temperature had dropped to 65 degrees.

Tornadoes at this scale are a rare occurrence for the London-Somerset area.

Daniel Carmack, a London realtor who’s lived there for 25 years, said significant tornadoes don’t necessarily cross most residents’ minds because damage of this kind hasn’t happened before.

“The loss of life, the absolute leveling of almost entire subdivisions, I don’t remember anything like this ever happening here in my lifetime. We always look at it like ‘that’s something that happens in Western Kentucky or in Oklahoma, but not here,’” Carmack said.

As a realtor, Carmack said he hears questions about tornadoes — whether or not a property has an adequate space to shelter — more often coming from people moving from out of state than locals.

“People moving in may have experienced it in other places, and I think part of the reason they move here is that our weather is fairly mild,” Carmack said. “But, you know, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the last little bit.”

This story was originally published May 17, 2025 at 10:23 AM.

Lexington Herald-Leader

706-571-8597

Austin Horn is a politics reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He previously worked for the Frankfort State Journal and National Public Radio. Horn has roots in both Woodford and Martin Counties.