Good Wednesday, everyone. Big changes are blowing across the bluegrass state over the next few days. Those changes start today with some scattered storms that can be on the strong side. The big news comes Thursday into Friday as rain chances really increase and temps decrease.
Scattered showers and storms out there today can be on the strong side, especially in the west and north. I will have your tracking tools for those in a moment. Temps will range from the upper 70s to low 80s as winds stay very gusty.
Widespread rain and thunderstorms work across the region on Thursday. Some of the storms may be strong and put down very heavy rainfall. Winds will be very gusty with a big temperature crash from west to east.
Showers linger into the first half of Friday across the central and east. Winds stay gusty with highs in the 50s. This means temps in the 40s for high school football games.
Lows by Saturday morning will be deep in the 30s…
If we can get the winds to calm down, widespread frost would be likely. Saturday’s highs will range from 60 in the far west to the low and middle 50s east. Skies stay partly sunny.
I have you all set to do some Wednesday storm tracking…
Today’s risk area
Make it a great day and take care.
It was Feb 2015. The official low at Blue Gr-a-s-s airport was -18 F
It was the Madison Mesonet that dropped to the -30s F.
@ Prelude – you’re right – but I wonder if the entire urban areas of Louisville and Lexington are hotter than the surrounding areas (but since people actually LIVE in the city proper) that would make it official, regardless of the fact that the reason it’s hotter is because of the city itself? I don’t know.
This leads me to another question – how long have official temps been reported at airports? Could the same argument be made if the official temps were recorded in a downtown area of a major city? I mean, I see that it would be no different than at the airport because of the buildings, cars, asphalt. Additionally – is the reverse true in the winter, if you have a record low at the airport, did surrounding areas outside of downtown reach lower temps?
Absolutely if there is a record low at the airport it’s basically a guarantee outside locations away from the airport are much cooler.
Here is a listing of where the official temperature for Lexington has been taken over the years.
http://www.weather.gov/media/lmk/climate/clilex/Station_History.pdf
It seems downtown locations may had been fairly popular spots for weather offices in the days before aviation. I vaguely recall reading that during the 1890s(?) either Louisville or Nashville (or both) had their weather bureau offices downtown.
Interestingly, a few locations still take measurements in downtown or other non-airport spots. Los Angeles records weather at both LAX airport and downtown which has showed some interesting contrasts. LAX (next to the coast) tends to have less temperature contrasts (both heat and cold) than downtown. While snow is of course rare in Los Angeles, LAX has only had a few trace snows, while downtown has recorded more traces snows plus three measureable snows (even when comparing time periods when both stations were open at same time, LAX has less snow and fewer temperature contrasts than downtown).
Gotta love micro-climates!
The SPC says a Severe Thunderstorm Watch could be issued soon for southern Missouri and far northern Arkansas which could effect those in extreme western Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee.
Our area should have better chances for severe t-storms tomorrow….hail and damaging winds being the main issues. Can’t rule out some isolated flooding problems as the baked hard ground may have some initial trouble absorbing moisture.
It’s 86 degrees in Louisville, Louisville is one degree away of tying the record high of 87 degrees.
87 in Lexington today. Broke the daily record of 84. It has never been warmer than 87 this late in the fall season. (It also hit 87 on October 26 and 27 1940)
That’s pretty incredible..
Thanks Chris. While we are gearing up for big changes, I guess it’s time to start pulling out the long sleeved clothes. Can’t say I’m ready for that but might as well be. It’s coming. Even harder when the outside temp today is in the mid 80s. Too bad I’ve been down with an ugly virus that doesn’t totally want to let go and couldn’t enjoy it. Ah well, gives me something to look forward to. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday everyone. Tomorrow looks wet and wild.
Upper 80s in Harlan at the moment and close to 5 weeks at the house without measurable precip.
Hope SE KY want to be skimmed on the rain coming up as we are in worse shape here.