The National Weather Service confirmed damage to some structures in Clark County over the weekend was caused by straight-line winds and not a tornado, according to the Clark County Emergency Management Director Gary Epperson.

Epperson said the NWS was in Clark and Madison counties Sunday surveying damage caused by heavy winds and storms Saturday.

According to NWS, “widespread 40- to 60-mile-per-hour winds occurred across the region in and outside storms and throughout several waves during the day Saturday.”

“At one point on Saturday afternoon, there were more than 43,000 power outages across the region,” NWS reports

Epperson said damage was caused to a home in Pilot View and the winds leveled a barn in the county as well.

According to the Kentucky Mesonet Center, winds reached 52 miles per hour in the first round of storms Saturday and 57 miles per hour in the second wave.

“It could have been higher in some parts of the county,” Epperson said. “That’s just what we recorded.”

In addition to the structural damage surveyed by NWS, Epperson said there was more mild damage caused throughout the county by the storms.

He said several homes had shingles blown off, and road crews spent much of the day responding to instances of debris in the road.

The Clark County Road Department responded to more than 20 calls of trees, limbs and other debris blocking roadways. The state road department also responded to at least seven similar calls, Epperson said.

Epperson said it is not uncommon for NWS to visit sites where damage is caused by weather.

“They want to substantiate what happened there,” he said. “Everything the National Weather Service does is by radar. They go on site to inspect the damage and determine what happened. In this case, they wanted to rule out the possibility this was a tornado. By doing this, they can also estimate what might happen in the future with similar weather events.”

Epperson said NWS determined the damage in Clark County was consistent with damage caused in Madison County by straight-line winds.

In Madison County, NWS reports damage to several barns, to the roof of White Hall historic site northwest of Richmond and a mobile home which was overturned by 80-mile-per-hour winds injuring three.

While Clark County and Central Kentucky saw unseasonably warm weather over the weekend, Epperson said extreme weather events are not uncommon in the winter months.

He said six of the eight presidential natural disaster designations for Kentucky have occurred in January, February or March.

“When you have warm weather and then an especially fast-moving cold front, it creates the type of weather we dealt with this weekend,” he said.

The National Weather Service predicts rain Tuesday and Wednesday, along with highs of 63 both days, and again Friday with a high of 53. Clark County will get a break from the rain Thursday, but will see lower temperatures with a high of 47.

Epperson advises people to be storm ready, whether that’s for a thunder storm or a snow and ice storm.

“Have an emergency kit in place,” he said. “It will make getting through those weather events much easier.”