For those of you who are interested, there is a supercell near Madisonville, Kentucky right now that has made weather history. This may be the longest tracked tornado-producing supercell in history. It’s on track to surpass the Tri-State tornado of 1925. That tornado tracked across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
The town of Mayfield, KY may be completely gone. The tornado lofted debris 30,000 feet into the air when it went through Mayfield. I honestly didn’t even know that was possible. The storm has crossed three states, producing large, destructive tornadoes. Radar signatures from this storm have never been observed before.
Radar estimated winds of 170 mph at one point. That’s EF-4. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was worse than that.
A mesonet weather station that I helped build and maintain in that part of the state when I was in grad school at Western Kentucky measured a wind gust of 107 mph when the storm went nearby.
The tornado is still ongoing near Madisonville, KY, and moving northeast. The path of destruction is over 200 miles long.
This storm is NO threat to the plateau.
Keep all those in the path of this thing so near to your hearts. I dread what the light of day shows us.
Some fatalities are being reported with storms tonight.