It was a warm late summer day on Wednesday across Central and Eastern Kentucky as high pressure continued to dominate our weather despite being off to our east. With full sunshine in place, afternoon highs surged a few more degrees with readings topping out into the mid and upper 80s, just a few degrees above average for this time in…
It was a warm late summer day on Wednesday across Central and Eastern Kentucky as high pressure continued to dominate our weather despite being off to our east. With full sunshine in place, afternoon highs surged a few more degrees with readings topping out into the mid and upper 80s, just a few degrees above average for this time in September. Our fantastic week of weather should hang on for one more day before we see some changes namely due to the leftovers from Hurricane Francine that will stream northward toward our region after it made landfall Wednesday along the Louisiana Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane.
Thursday is looking dry for most of the area as high clouds continue to move in from the south. These clouds should filter out the sunshine enough to trim off a few degrees from expected afternoon highs with most locations topping out in the low to mid-80s. Any isolated shower chances should be confined to our far southern counties although most locations should remain rain-free. Keep in mind the air-mass has been very dry the latest few days so it will take a bit to saturate the air, which shouldn’t be overly difficult with tropical moisture heading our way. The “muggy-cast” indicates a nice bump in the humidity as we close out the week on Friday.
The leftovers from Francine will move slowly northward into Friday and the upper level ridge of high pressure really helps to slow down the system as it transitions into a remnant low. Much of the data has it camping out just to our west across Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky heading into the weekend. Bands of rain and occasional storms are expected Friday across much of the area but the most favored spot is going to be Western Kentucky with the overall chances and totals tapering off eastward into Central and Eastern Kentucky, especially this weekend. The upper level ridge should be strong enough to weaken the remnants a good bit into the weekend and keep the best rain chances west, even though we are still looking at continued scattered shower chances Saturday and Sunday but it shouldn’t be a wash-out.
Of course there are plenty of outdoor activities going on this weekend including the Kentucky/Georgia game at Kroger Field Saturday evening at 7:30pm (which you can see right here on ABC 36) so just plan on taking the rain gear just to be on the safe side. Again the favored area for more consistent rain and higher rainfall totals should be across Western Kentucky and a lot of the data has really tapered down the overall rainfall totals expected in our area. Remember these tropical remnants can be a bit tricky as they move inland so it is worth monitoring heading toward the weekend. Afternoon highs should be warm thanks to less rain coverage as temperatures reach the low 80s.
We are watching the potential for another wave of low pressure hanging off the North Carolina coast, which much of the data wants to bring on-shore into early next week and move it westward toward the commonwealth. If this scenario plays out, this could bring some beneficial rain to Central and Eastern Kentucky. This would be a positive thing given the dry/drought conditions we’ve seen all summer and the fall forest fire season is just a few weeks from now. We’ll keep an eye on this scenario as we head toward the weekend.
ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear and pleasant. Lows in the low to mid-50s.
THURSDAY: More sunshine, heating up. Highs in the mid to upper-80s.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Clouds increase, still quiet. Lows in the upper-50s and low-60s.