Kentucky counties have seen their fair share of severe weather just two months into 2025.
Traditionally considered the start of severe weather season in Kentucky, March 1-7 is Kentucky Severe Weather Awareness Week. In conjunction with this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) will conduct the Statewide Tornado Drill, Friday, March 7, at 10:07 a.m. ET / 9:07 a.m. CT (NOTE: The drill was rescheduled from Wed. March 5 due to the weather forecast.)
“The message will go over as a tornado warning (with lots of TEST wording) and will activate the Emergency Alert System (EAS), but not the wireless emergency alerts,” said Mike Kochasic, warning coordination meteorologist with NWS. “We hope that the EAS activation will increase participation, and we are notifying third party vendors ahead of time to help avoid confusion. If there is a threat of severe weather at the scheduled time, we will postpone the drill to a fair-weather day.”
Areas of northern Kentucky served by NWS Wilmington, Ohio, will receive a Routine Weekly Test per agreement with Cincinnati-area broadcasters.
For more information, email Kochasic at Michael.Kochasic@noaa.gov. To view an FAQ page regarding the statewide tornado drill, click here.
Local Office NOAA Weather Radio Information
Louisville (for central Kentucky): www.weather.gov/lmk/weather_radio-lmk
Paducah (for western Kentucky): www.weather.gov/pah/NOAAWeatherRadio
Jackson (for eastern Kentucky): www.weather.gov/jkl/weatherradio
Wilmington, Ohio (Florence/Cincinnati area): www.weather.gov/iln/nwr
Charleston, West Virginia (Ashland area): www.weather.gov/rlx/nwr
