Sunday Severe Weather Risks: Damaging winds and isolated t-storms

(WOWK) — Autumn is no stranger to strong cold fronts as we transition from summer to the cooler fall months. Big temperature changes in the fall drive strong winds events across several states each year. Sunday, October 19th, 2025, such a cold front is set to barrel through our region. Your StormTracker 13 team breaks down the latest:

As our cold front approaches from the west late Saturday night into Sunday morning winds will increase southwesterly 10-15mph to 25-30mph by sunrise Sunday. Clouds increase overnight into Sunday with showers arriving first for eastern Kentucky by early morning Sunday. For our eastern counties, don’t be surprised if your Sunday morning features sunshine to start. Winds will begin to increase the closer the front get to you

By noon, our cold front will have made it to the tri-state with steady showers and imbedded thunderstorms rolling east. Ahead of the front winds are southwesterly but they will change direction behind the front westerly. As the cold front marches east, winds increase behind it 25-30mph at times, higher gusts possible on hilltops and mountain ridgelines. They’ll increase sharply marking the front itself as it crosses over your neighborhood.

With many trees still holding leaves, the risk for downed trees is likely. Leaves act like big sails catching the winds. With many transmission lines up and over ridgetops and hillsides, expect scattered power outages as winds push 25-30mph for hours at a time.

Our best chance for severe thunderstorms comes behind the front from 2pm to 9pm with lines of thunderstorms developing. As each line passes, thunderstorms along them will be quick hitting, pulling down strong winds aloft to the surface. Moments of winds gusts pushing 40-60mph is possible inside these thunderstorms. Follow along with the StormTracker 13 app as these lines push through.

Once the area of low pressure associated with this cold front marches northeast into Sunday night, we’ll transition to scattered steady showers with general isolated thunderstorms. However, the winds remain elevated westerly 25-30mph across the region. The farther north of I-64 you are, the more likely showers and a few rumbles remain through the night. South of I-64, showers will be more hit and miss.

The farther the low moves away, the more our winds will begin to dial back. From west to east, winds will settle back to a more breezy 15-20mph. Hilltops and ridgelines will continue to see stronger gusts from time to time.

Winds like this are driven by temperature differences and we’ll certainly notice the temperature change heading into Sunday night and early Monday morning.

After all is said and done and the cooler air settles heading into Monday, the crisp autumn air will keep temperatures right around seasonal averages. Heading into the rest of the week, frost and freeze threats start to creep down the mountains. If the leaves manage to survive the winds Sunday, this stretch of colder air will do wonders for the fall foliage.