Good Thursday everyone. It is full steam ahead toward the unofficial kickoff to summer that is our Memorial Day Weekend. The weather of the past few days has been a little on the summery side with warm temps and high humidity levels with scattered afternoon storms.
The threat for showers and storms will be on the increase over the next few days. Everyone wants to know if these storms will get out of town by the weekend. The not so simple answer to that question is yes and no. 
The bulk of the storms will move away by early Saturday. The problem is… some of them will try to return before the long weekend is over. More on that in a bit.
As far as the weather is concerned today.. it is more of the same. Temps will be back in the 80s again with muggy conditions. A few showers and storms will go up this afternoon and evening with the greatest concentration across the west and north. Some of these may try to pulse up and become strong or severe for a brief period and put down some heavy rains. You can track the action here…
The greatest concentration of shower and storms will be with us Friday as a weak front washes out across the region. This happens as low pressure forms just to our south and becomes cut off from the main flow. Locally heavy rains will be a good bet…
GFS Friday Afternoon
GFS Friday Evening
Much of the shower and storm action will push to the south of us for Saturday. Notice I say MUCH of the action as I suspect our southern counties could still fire up a stray shower or storm.
Moisture will begin to increase again by Sunday into Memorial Day Monday. There will be a better chance for scattered showers and storms across the entire area by this time. Highs should be back in the lower 80s.
Looking farther down the road… the first few weeks of June look rather stormy to me. We will have to watch for severe storms and heavy rains during this time as the overall pattern across North America suggests rounds of storms to me. 
Have a great Thursday and take care.
Thanks Chris
No comment on the short lived Dish Network “Weathercast” channel?
One other thing I wanted to mention……. Why is Louisville such a freakishly hot city? I hear the urban island effect is the reason but Cincinnati is rarely as hot as Louisville and I’m sure there is more pavement. Both cities are on the river.
The ASOS at SDF is surrounded by concrete runways and taxiways…as well as several large UPS buildings. All that infrastructure was not there when the ASOS was first installed. So, the combination of those things leads SDF to be a bit warmer. Typically LOU (Bowman) is more representative of the suburbs.
Cincinnati’s ASOS is at Covington-Northern Kentucky Airport. Its not even close to downtown Cincy. One could use KLUK for downtown Cincy’s temps.
-MJ
Dish Network simply put up that channel as a front to get TWC to agree to new carriage terms. It seemed to work as TWC did not want to loose 12-13 million customers of its installed base. Though, I hear through various satellite sources that TWC and Dish are working on a local weather program based on ones satellite receiver location.
Far more interesting than that is: Why is Lexington such a ridiculously COOL spot? For years I have wondered by LEX is always cooler than ALL surrounding areas. Now with the Mesonet up and running it’s even easier to see. Being a huge metro area, LEX is awfully cool. I blamed it on faulty sensors for years..but I think the geography must be to blame. But why?
Man those look like some intense storms popping to our north and West.
Perhaps, but it is sitting in a large open area over lush grass. Frankfort is even more pronounced. Cold air loves to pool in there around the ASOS. Bowling Green is unique as well as it always fogs up during the overnight hours. London is also similar to BWG as well.
I know!!!
It also makes me wonder why sometimes during a heat wave, Lexington will be as HOT as surrounding areas, and other times, it’s a few degrees cooler. I don’t know if geography plays a role in it. I know Lexington is on a plateau at 900 something feet elevation.
Lexington, and a few neighboring cities, sit at around 1000 ft in elevation. This definitely has a small effect on the temperatures when compared to places sitting a couple hundred feet lower. This doesn’t occur when the temperature is 33 and raining 🙂
Great weather for the holiday, but I don’t think we will grill out this year. I’m thinking of just going out to eat if we can get a table.