Roof Notes · Storm Data
Across fourteen Central and Eastern Kentucky counties from 2022 through 2024, the federal storm record logs 326 thunderstorm wind events and 31 hail events — better than ten wind events for every hail event. Roofing conversation in Kentucky is mostly about hail. The record is mostly about wind.
We pulled this from the National Centers for Environmental Information Storm Events Database, the federal government’s own event log, using the published annual CSV files for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Everything below is counted from those files. Anyone can download them and get the same numbers.
How often does Central Kentucky actually get damaging hail?
Less often than the marketing implies. Across fourteen counties and three full years, the record holds 31 hail events total — roughly ten per year spread over an area of about 4,000 square miles.
Hail concentrates where population and spotters concentrate. Fayette County logged 8 events, Madison 6, Jessamine 5, Powell 3, and Clark, Estill and Scott 2 each. Menifee, Lee and Montgomery logged one apiece. The three years were also very uneven: 12 hail events in 2022, 16 in 2023, and 3 in 2024. A single year is not a pattern here.
The largest stone in the window was 3.00 inches, recorded in Fayette County on 19 May 2022. Madison County logged 2.75 inches on 25 June 2023, and Jessamine County 2.75 inches on 19 May 2022.
Which counties get hit by thunderstorm wind most?
Estill, Montgomery, Powell and Fayette, in that order — and the top three are all smaller, more rural counties than Fayette. Wind is the dominant recorded event in every county on the list.
| County | Thunderstorm wind events | Hail events | Strongest gust logged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estill | 49 | 2 | 56 kt |
| Montgomery | 44 | 1 | 65 kt |
| Powell | 41 | 3 | 61 kt |
| Fayette | 41 | 8 | 83 kt |
| Wolfe | 24 | 0 | 51 kt |
| Menifee | 22 | 1 | 50 kt |
| Madison | 20 | 6 | 96 kt |
| Woodford | 18 | 0 | 70 kt |
| Scott | 18 | 2 | 60 kt |
| Clark | 15 | 2 | 71 kt |
| Lee | 12 | 1 | 65 kt |
| Garrard | 10 | 0 | 74 kt |
| Jessamine | 8 | 5 | 54 kt |
| Bourbon | 4 | 0 | 53 kt |
The single strongest entry in the three-year set is Madison County on 25 June 2023: a 96-knot estimated gust, about 110 mph, from an NWS storm survey. Fayette County’s 83-knot estimate on 2 April 2024 is about 96 mph, also from a storm survey. The strongest instrument-measured gust in the set is 71 knots — about 82 mph — in Clark County on 17 August 2024, recorded by a mesonet station.
Ten to one. That is the ratio of recorded wind events to recorded hail events in this part of Kentucky.
Do wind and hail arrive together?
Sometimes the same storm does both within minutes. Madison County’s 96-knot gust is logged at 21:32 on 25 June 2023; its 2.75-inch hail is logged at 21:34 — two minutes later.
That matters for how a roof gets looked at afterward. A storm that produced both leaves two different damage signatures on the same slope: impact bruising from the stones, and lifted, creased or displaced material from the gust. Inspecting for one and stopping is how the other gets missed. Our note on signs of hidden roof damage covers what each looks like from the ground.
What months does this happen in?
July is the busiest month by a wide margin. Counting both event types across all three years: July 96, June 76, August 70, May 54, April 25, February 18, January 10, and March and November 4 each.
The gap is the surprising part. Across three full years and fourteen counties, the record contains zero hail or thunderstorm wind events in September, October or December. That is a real quiet season in the data — and it is the window in which a roof can be looked at, and work scheduled, without competing against a storm queue. It is also why catching trouble early is easier in autumn than in midsummer.
February’s 18 events are worth a second look too. Winter thunderstorm wind is not what most homeowners picture, and it arrives when nobody is thinking about the roof.
What are the limits of this data?
It is a record of reported events, not a census of weather. Counts reflect how many people were positioned to report, so every number here is a floor rather than a total.
The sources attached to individual entries make that concrete: the strongest gust came from an NWS storm survey, one hail report from broadcast media, another from a county emergency manager, another from a member of the public, one wind report from a 911 call center. A county with more spotters, more media coverage and a more active emergency management office will log more events than an identical county without them. Estill County topping the wind list ahead of Fayette is a genuine finding, but it is a finding about the record, and part of what drives it is who was there to call it in.
Most of the gust figures are also estimates rather than measurements. The database flags each one, and in this set nearly all of the high numbers are NWS estimated gusts derived from surveying damage on the ground, not readings off an anemometer. That is standard practice and it is how severe wind is assessed nationally — but an estimated 96 mph and a measured 96 mph are not the same kind of number, and it is worth knowing which one you are reading.
In the field the thing this data matches is how differently the two damage types announce themselves. Hail gets attention because it is loud and it happens to the whole neighborhood at once, so everyone looks at once. Wind damage tends to be localized to a slope, an edge, or one run of material, it makes no noise the homeowner connects to the roof, and it frequently shows up months later as a stain on a ceiling rather than as a storm memory. If the record says wind outnumbers hail ten to one here, then the damage most likely to be sitting unaddressed on a Central Kentucky roof right now is the quiet kind. None of that is a reason to skip a hail inspection — it is a reason not to let hail be the only thing that triggers one. Kentucky also puts deadlines on insurance claims, and a delay is easier to cause with damage nobody noticed.
Forecast and warning context for these counties comes from the National Weather Service office in Louisville for central Kentucky and the Jackson office for the eastern counties. Our storm restoration notes cover what to do after an event.
Is hail or wind worse for roofs in Central Kentucky?
By frequency in the federal record, wind — 326 thunderstorm wind events against 31 hail events across fourteen counties from 2022 through 2024. Severity per event is a separate question; a 3-inch hail stone and a 110 mph gust are both capable of ending a roof’s service life.
What was the strongest storm wind recorded near Lexington recently?
In this three-year set, Fayette County’s highest entry is an 83-knot estimated gust — about 96 mph — on 2 April 2024, from a National Weather Service storm survey. Neighboring Madison County logged a 96-knot estimate, about 110 mph, on 25 June 2023.
When is the quiet season for storm damage here?
September and October. Across 2022 through 2024 the database records no hail or thunderstorm wind events in those months for any of the fourteen counties counted. That is a record of reports, not a guarantee of calm weather.
Last updated: September 27, 2026. Counts drawn from NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database annual files for 2022, 2023 and 2024, retrieved 27 September 2026.
By Marcos Gil, REALTOR® — Keller Williams Commonwealth · KY Real Estate License No. 296259 · Call or text (859) 310-1209.
Central Roof Repair is owned by Marcos Gil, who also publishes marcosgilrealty.com. This note is general information about a public dataset, not an insurance opinion, a damage assessment or a promise about any claim outcome.
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