Good Saturday, folks. All eyes in the weather world continue to be Barry as it comes ashore in Louisiana. This is a storm that rolls northward through the Mississippi Valley then takes a turn toward the east into the lower Ohio Valley. Obviously, a track like that means tropical rains for the bluegrass state.
Let’s begin with today and roll forward. Much of the state is dry, but the south and southwest could see a few showers and storms going up. Here’s regional radar to track whatever shows up…
A weak cold front drops in from the north on Sunday and will combine forces with offshoot tropical moisture to produce a few showers and storms, A setup like this can produce a few cloudbursts, so keep that in mind.
Hurricane Barry is makes landfall early today in Louisiana, bringing a huge and a ton of rain. Here are the tracking toys to follow along…
Barry has been a very unbalanced storm with much of the rain on the eastern side of the center of circulation. That’s expected to be the case well inland as this storm spins up the Mississippi River Valley and into the lower Ohio Valley through the middle of next week. The WPC rainfall forecast indicates the potential for some hefty numbers…
That matches up well with the potential impact zone I put out several days ago…
The greatest impact on our weather is likely to come from later Monday through early Thursday. Heavy rainfall will be likely during this time and that’s something we will have to keep a close eye on.
I will update things later today so check back. Make it a good one and take care.
It was about this time back in 1995 that one of North America’s worst heat waves was developing. While cites like Milwaukee and St Louis were hard hit (and later Pittsburgh and Toronto), it was Chicago that got most of the attention as hundreds lost their lives in conditions that had both extreme heat and extreme dewpoints.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Chicago_heat_wave
Also, Johnson County and other areas of Kentucky experienced deadly flash flooding on today’s date back in 2015.
I remember that heat wave growing up. I was 12 that year. I think Harlan only made it to 97 but the dewpoints were close to 80 here with a heat advisory thanks to heat index around 110 for a few days straight. Chicago had index between 120 to 130 scattered throughout the urban areas with lows above 80 if you can imagine!
I was your age. While I recall Tennessee was affected by that heat wave, guess I was too busy swimming and being in the AC to remember a whole lot during the event itself. But I do remember a photo of a Chicago police officer or fire fighter taking a break yet still struggling hard to endure the in the horrific conditions outside with his arm against his head.
But a few weeks later, I saw footage of a m*a*s*s funeral with about a dozen coffins of Chicago heat wave victims that were never claimed by any relatives. That sure hit home.
Barry is so far west of SE KY, I don’t know if I will see much or any direct rain from the circulation itself but probably some t-storms due to enhanced moisture merging with a front in the coming days. My dewpoint finally slipped below 70 late yesterday evening and is 66 this morning. It will be very short lived but one can feel a huge difference between 60s and 70s for dewpoints!
My county miss out on the comfortable weather they had in Louisville yesterday and today it is going to get really uncomfortable here in Taylor County due to an increase in the dew points. I don’t know if we will receive any beneficial rains from Barry ? The forecast for my county is for only a 60% chance for showers on Thursday.
My better half (wife) has relatives in Louisville. Just looked up the KY Mesonet. Oldham County to the northeast of Louisville/Jefferson County is a nice 59 dewpoint. But you don’t have to go too far south until dewpoints are in the nasty mid 70s.
dew point is 78 here Temps was in the low 90s until the storms started popping. No rain yet though.
SWEAT-O-METER Reads: It’s awful! I am now in Pigeon Forge. When I left Harlan, the dewpoint was already back to low 70s this morning. Down here, it is mid 70s but 90 outside like in SE KY. Northern KY gets more breaks during the summer than we do down this way.
Looks like it might miss WKY looking at the cone….?
The cone is only the center of circulation forecast area. Heavy rains and wind can occur well outside of the cone (sometimes up to 250 miles away.)
My tolerance for heat has really gone down as I age. I remember my younger years I use to work out in the fields in 100+ degree heat and back then they didn’t have the heat index to report.
I’m in my 30s now. I can take the heat better than the cold but a few years ago we had dewpoints in the low 80s and even I was being drained. During my earlier years, that heat and humidity would not have been so bad.
But if anything, I think my tolerance for cold is dropping at an even faster rate. I can easily imagine wintering way down south after I retire. I suppose time will tell if my wife and I will be able to financially do it 😉 !