Thursday, January 12, 2023, in central Kentucky:
The day started with an earthquake. Seriously, 3:05 am. The epicenter was in Burgin, KY. It was a minor quake, something like 2.6. No deaths or major damage attributed to it yet.
Severe weather warnings from around 8:30 am - 1:00 pm. I was sitting in garage waiting area with several other customers (no, I don't want to get into and it would just bore you anyway) when all of our phones just went mad buzzing, binging, and ringing with a "seek immediate shelter" alert.
Inside a garage waiting area technically counts as shelter. But I had a wall of plate glass at my back and displays of very large tires filled most of the floor space. It seemed a bit less safe than my basement shelter.
The full brunt of the thunderstorm hit at 9:42 am with hail and 60 mph winds. Ten minutes later, clear skies. For awhile. Lots of property damage from tornadoes, other high but not spiraling winds, hail, and flash floods.
The rain continued off and on as temperatures rose up to 59F and then fell to low 30s. The "S" word was forecast -- because precipitation plus low temps -- so the grocery stores, or at least their parking lots, were insane after work.
I wasn't shopping. I just needed gas; I couldn't wait to stop on my way to work Saturday morning because
I64 East was closed around Lawrenceburg / Graefenburg area for several hours. Kentucky State Police would only say "a traffic hazard exists" in that area. Someone else reported that the chase (no, I don't know what chase, but wouldn't that be lovely info) went through three counties. A news station flew their traffic chopper over the area and noted a truck with bullet holes on the highway.
So I followed the detour like everyone else and eventually got to Frankfort via backroads by which point I couldn't wait to fill up.
The temperature dropped from 53F to 42F in the hour it took to get from work to the gas station. I still had another half hour of driving to get home.
So:
earthquake
severe weather, including
heavy rains, high winds, tornadoes, and hail
a car chase (?) resulting in a "traffic hazard" and bullets which
closed an interstate highway between the state's capital and the largest city for several hours
(To be fair, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet closes the interstate between Frankfort and Louisville at least once a month. I don't think bullets are usually involved, but who knows.)
But whatever the overnight low got down to, it didn't snow. Even so, I think Kentucky is done for awhile.
p.s. Bonus mini-post explaining why I was at a garage during yesterday morning's apocalypse.
Monday, I had to leave early to do stuff before work. And then do other stuff on the way home. Tuesday, I had to do stuff before work and then it was my late night (which is now actually two nights a week) at the library. Wednesday, I had to do stuff before work, altho I didn't have to leave home early -- but nothing after and no late hours. And no early errands Thursday morning.
I was so looking forward to two days when I'd only be away from home for about eleven hours instead of thirteen.
I forgot to factor in the dumpster fire that is I64.
I don't know what had happened. I have a very, um, let's say broad imagination. I can at least work up possible back stories -- from the wildly insane to the prosaic "meh, it was probably something like that". Everything I've come up with for Wednesday even involves Wile E. Coyote and/or Donkey Kong.
Imagine if you can that someone had a dozen or more empty large wood crates or maybe barrels. And that person smashed them up. Into little hits. Thin laths of wood (yes, I know a lath is a thin strip of wood and "thin laths of wood" is extra redundant) maybe two inches wide and anywhere from a few inches to a couple of feet long. Plus lots of small chips and splinters.
And then this person, still for unknown reasons and with unknown means, flung all of these rough, broken wood bits across both eastbound lanes and the shoulders, completely guardrail to guardrail, of a major interstate highway. So for maybe two car lengths the entire drivable surface is wood.
Little bits of wood which fly up and shatter windshields and spike tires and dent hoods.
I was lucky. I only lost a tire to the mess.
p.p.s. Everything in this post is true. No exaggerations for effect. No hyperbole (again, yes, I know "exaggeration for effect" is the definition of hyper and I am being redundant, bite me, it's been a stressful week). And it all -- earthquake, weather, and "traffic hazard" -- happened on one day in central Kentucky. Except the wood-strewn highway which happened the night before -- and didn't even rate as news.
p.p.p.s. I remember when a really bad day here meant a thick coat of yellow ragweed pollen on the car, and either a tornado siren or an accident on the interstate.
p.p.p.p.s. At least it didn't snow. People here really freak when snow is predicted.
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