Good Tuesday, everyone. Hot and humid weather continues to rule the short-term pattern across Kentucky, but the tropics are flexing some muscle and will influence our weather the rest of the week. “Flash” Gordon is zipping through the Gulf of Mexico and is likely to throw moisture at us in the coming days.

Let me begin with the current weather and roll forward. Highs today are back into the upper 80s and low 90s with a heat index making it feel toastier than that. Scattered showers and storms will try to flare up during the afternoon and evening…

Gordon isn’t the most impressive storm ever created, but it has a chance to reach a low end Cat 1 hurricane before coming ashore. That track for landfall is centered around Biloxi, Mississippi, with the inland track continuing to get pushed farther east by the National Hurricane Center…

cone graphic

The GFS has been smoking many of the other models with the handling of Gordon, especially the European. The latest run of the GFS takes what’s left of Gordon north along and just west of the Mississippi River before turning the corner into the northern Ohio Valley this weekend. Watch how all this tropical moisture interacts with a stalled boundary around our region…

The Canadian continues to trend toward the GFS and is now very close to bringing what’s left of Gordon into western and northern Kentucky this weekend…

What does all this mean for us?

  • Tropical moisture streams in here Wednesday through Friday and interacts with a stalled front. This type of setup can bring some major rain producing showers and storms our way.
  • Humidity levels are going to be absurd.
  • As what’s left of Gordon heads into the northern Ohio Valley this weekend, it will bring another big surge of showers and storms with it. That action will be maximized by a cold front moving in at the same time. This means heavy rain will once again be likely.
  • Throw all this together and you get, at least, some local high water issues possibly developing at some point.

Temperatures behind all this will actually feel pretty good for a few days early next week, but it’s the tropics that will continue to dictate the overall pattern. Florence and a soon to be named system are out in the Atlantic…

Florence is going to have to fight off a couple of troughs if it’s going to make a run at the east coast of the United States next week. The GFS has it getting close, but recurving well offshore…

The Canadian is is MUCH closer to the east coast…

I will hook you up with another update later today. Make it a good one and take care.