Good Friday to one and all and thanks for all you do for the blog. We are heading into a wet weekend here across Kentucky and an increasing threat for some heavy rains and thunderstorms later today into tonight and Saturday. This will force us to keep an eye on creeks and streams for the chance for some high water. Eventually… areas along the Ohio River are going to have to keep an eye on water levels as snow melt in the Appalachian mountains and the potential for heavy rains in those same areas send the river levels up.

Today will start out calm enough with some sunshine taking us into the afternoon hours. Low pressure will be working into western Kentucky and Tennessee this afternoon into tonight and will cause a surge of rain and storms to break out ahead of it. This band of heavy rain and strong storms will roll northeastward across the region. More rounds of showers would then continue into the day on Saturday as cooler temps and gusty winds work their way in here.

The models are spitting out some heavy amounts of rainfall in some areas. Take a look at what a couple of them show through Saturday night…


You can see many areas are forecast to get an inch or more of rain during this time. The models are both having their problems trying to pinpoint the exact placement of the heaviest rains as they don’t handle thunderstorms very well.

I mentioned possible flooding for along the Ohio River and the extreme northeastern Kentucky counties are under a FLOOD WATCH because of this possibility…



Areas upstream along the mighty Ohio are also under Flood Watches with a few flood warnings out…



Keep in mind that snow melt from the mountains already has streams and some rivers on the rise. Throw some heavy rain on top of that and significant rises along the Ohio River will be likely over the next several days and into next week. Just something to keep an eye on right now.

You can track today’s rounds of showers and storms rolling our way from the southwest here on regional radar…



As mentioned earlier… we also have to watch for a few strong or severe storms later today. Here is the latest severe weather map from the storm prediction center…

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I will have updates as needed today so be sure to check back. Have a great Friday and take care.