Good Friday, folks. We’ve made it to the end of the week and we are rolling into a windy and mainly dry weekend across the Commonwealth as a Tropical Storm along the Carolina coast slows everything down. This means our rain chances next week continue to look slow to develop.
Before we get into the future, let’s give it up for September. The temperature pattern has been nothing short of amazing, especially over the past few weeks. Temps during this run averaged well below normal…
This is essentially a continuation of the cooler than normal summer we are coming out of and this pattern shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. Did yea hear that winter lovers?
Temps today generally range from the upper 70s east to the low 80s for the rest of the region. Skies will feature a mix of sun and clouds.
As this is happening, Ophelia is developing off the southeastern coast and this will likely become a strong Tropical Storm as it heads toward a early Saturday landfall in North Carolina. Here’s the latest information on Ophelia and the latest track from the National Hurricane Center…
As you can see, the track of this system likely stays well to our east, but it can throw some clouds into eastern Kentucky. It’s a stretch to get rain west of the Appalachians in a setup like this but the NAM fam is trying…
Again, any shower threat in eastern Kentucky is REALLY low during this time.
Winds will be rather gusty starting this evening and going through Saturday with a tightening pressure gradient between a high to the north and Ophelia to the east. Gusts of 25mph or a little greater will be possible on this strong northeast flow…
Highs across central and eastern Kentucky will come way down during this time with low and middle 70s for Saturday and Sunday. Lows with a clear sky can get fairly chilly in some of the valleys.
The setup for next week continues to be a complicated one with several upper-level lows spinning on top of us or nearby…
That will bring an increase in rain chances starting Tuesday and going through the end of the week. Can we finally cash in on these chances? Hope so.
Have a fantastic Friday and take care.
I don’t think it was “well below normal”.
Agree. Seemed pretty normal for September. Dug two holes for new trees. One was 16” deep. No moisture. Traffic areas in neighborhood lawns have seen fragile, dormant turf reduced to dust, especially where trees are vigorously competing for every last drop of water.
It would be expensive to irrigate now days. I don’t know what trees or shrubs would be the most drought tolerant ? All I know is that Azaleas, Rhododendron and Hollies are not. That’s what I grew and sold in my Nursery years and years ago in better times.
Thanks Chris. I agree it’s really been a ” Tame Summer. ” The month of September has had many pleasant days and cool mornings. When this season’s Tropical Storms cease, I believe we will then have more changeable weather. Maybe a cool to cold October like we had in 1976. Don’t know.
It hasn’t been tame.
The records show it was.
This summer had it spells of hot days but not like a normal summer that were accustom too. It has been a tame summer. Looking forward what mother nature throw at us this winter.
We just had a few days above 90 degrees where I live.
Too early to tell how the Winter will turn out weatherwise. Not sure what ENSO ( El Nino ) impacts will be here in Kentucky. I did learn from NOAA that the El Nino coming up will be a ‘ Cold Tongue / Eastern Pacific type. ‘ The last El Nino, which was very strong in 2015 -16 was a ‘ Warm Pool / Central Pacific type. ‘
I like the Old Farmers Almanac forecast for a Snowy Winter here in our region, but they were calling for that last Winter and it was bust.
Summer wasn’t tame.
Despite the below-normal temperatures of the last two weeks, September overall is still averaging slightly above normal here in the Chicago Metro Area because of the three straight days of 90+ degree temps we had the first week of the month.