Good Monday, everyone. Oppressive humidity is back in the bluegrass state to start the week, with increasing amounts of storms to end it. All of this leads us into, what appears to be, more of the same for Labor Day Holiday Weekend.
Temps today are generally in the upper 80s to around 90, with some low 90s in the west. Humidity levels are the big story with a heat index well into the 90s with local 100 numbers showing up.
This comes in the closing days of a month that has been very nice in terms of temps, especially with the highs. Check out how weird the month has been for temps, with highs well below normal and lows above normal…
The year as a whole has been very wild, with record cold months evening out record warm months. Still, you can see how the lows have been much warmer than the highs…
Year to date has been normal across Kentucky, but in a very abnormal way.
Let’s get back to where we are this week. Tuesday will be very similar to what we have out there today, so take some breaks if you’re outside for any prolonged period of time.
Wednesday will find scattered showers and storms increasing as a cold front drops in from the northwest. This front will put the brakes on across the region and hang around through the end of the week and into, at least, the start of Labor Day Weekend. The end result will be more in the way of rounds of showers and storms…
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Labor Day
I leave you with your isolated storm tracking tools for the day…
Make it a good one and take care.
Interesting that the low temperatures have average out higher than the highs. I think this can be explained that we had a very cloudy summer which would hold the heat in at the surface at night.
Way, way back in 1854 on this date (Aug 27) was a Louisville tornado:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=tornado_climatology_1854
It was estimated to be of only F2 strength with a path length of a mere two miles. Thus, this twister could have been rather quickly forgotten after the damage was cleaned up.
Sadly, this 1854 twister made a direct hit on a crowded church, with 20+ people losing their lives.
However, this appears to be the only fatal August tornado in Kentucky’s recorded history (and no fatal August twisters in Tennessee). At least according to publications such as “Significant Tornadoes” by Thomas Grazulis.
As we know, spring is peak season in Kentucky and Tennessee for twisters, including stronger tornadoes. On somewhat rare occasions, these stronger twisters can also strike our region during late fall and even the middle of winter.
But the few July/August/September tornadoes recorded in Kentucky and Tennessee tend to be relatively weak. In fact, none in KY have been rated higher than F2/EF2. Any stronger tornadoes this time of year in the USA tend to occur closer to Canada. Thus, this 1854 Louisville event causing such high loss of life in August is an unfortunate anomaly. Lets hope our area can go much longer still with no August tornado fatalities.
Well, I was hoping we were done with 95+ heat indicies.. guess we’ll have to put up with it a couple more weeks or when ever the first fall front pushes through.