60-mph wind gusts bring down trees, power lines in three states

Wednesday's brief but locally intense storms spawned 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts that knocked down trees and interrupted power for thousands of customers across the area.

Reports to the National Weather Service office confirmed that most of the region endured an afternoon of 30- to 40-mph winds, but individual thunderstorms packed even stronger gusts on a day that saw Paducah's all-time high for the date reach 77 degrees. That smashed the previous mark of 72 set in 2017, and just missed Paducah's highest temperature ever in February, 78 on Feb. 13, 1962.

About 1 p.m., storms moved into southeast Missouri. A tree went down in Cape's Vincent Park, and several other large trees blocked streets in the city. Nearly 2500 Cape Girardeau residents were without power, 1200 lost power in Mississippi County, and another 1000 were powerless in New Madrid County.

Just after 2 p.m. in Ballard County, KYTC reported trees down at Barlow, where US 60 was blocked until about 3 p.m.  A tree fell on a house southeast of Wickliffe on Bethlehem Church Road. At 3:30 p.m. McCracken County officials reported that a tree blocked McKendree Church Road, and on Bethel Church Road at Massey Road. A utility pole came down on Epperson Road in Reidland.

Over 800 customers were reported without power in Hickman County.

Graves County saw a 60-mph gust southeast of Hickory, and  57-mph winds that interrupted power along Old Dukedom Road. Siding was ripped off of a home in the county, and a tree came down in a Symsonia yard.

In southern Illinois, a 61-mph gust was recorded at a weather service station in Jackson County and several trees were reported down.

About 500 customers were still without power in southeast Missouri on Wednesday night. Southern Illinois had about 200 customers yet to restore, and western Kentucky had just a handful still without power.




Siding was damaged on a home in Graves County during storms Wednesday that generated wind gusts over 60 miles per hour.  (Photo JP's Traffic)