Upon Further Review: The May 18, 1995 Ohio Valley
Severe Weather Outbreak (168)
John Gordon, National
Weather Service, Louisville, KY
Cody Moore, University
of Louisville
Abstract:
During the morning hours of
May 18, 1995, a line of severe thunderstorms pushed through Kentucky producing
millions of dollars in damage and causing dozens of injuries. As the
quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) approached the Interstate-75 corridor, it
produced widespread damage at Jessamine County High School in Nicholasville,
KY, just as students were arriving at school. Large sections of the school's
roof were torn off and bleachers were picked up and thrown across the football
field. Over 30 students were injured during the storm. The storm also produced
considerable structural damage to the Walmart and numerous businesses and homes
in the city. The QLCS continued to barrel eastward to the West Virginia state
line, producing significant wind damage along its path.
Storm surveys from 1995
listed the damage as straight-line winds. However, at a rotary talk in 2016,
numerous questions and skepticism focused on why this was not declared a
tornado in Nicholasville at the time. More than two decades later, a National
Weather Service (NWS) investigation revisited this event, including examining
Doppler radar and environmental weather data, videos, photos, newspaper
articles, and talking with eyewitnesses.
After months of assessing the
evidence, NWS Louisville confirmed that a 24-mile F2 tornado ripped through
Nicholasville that morning. Numerous changes are being made to Storm Data,
including increasing the maximum winds to 145 mph, extending tornado damage
over four counties, and updating another nearby tornado for a 10-mile track. A
comprehensive webpage was created on this event:
http://www.weather.gov/lmk/may18_1995_tornadoes.