Good Saturday and welcome to a very active weather day across Kentucky. The risk for strong and severe thunderstorms will increase today and carry us into the overnight hours. This is all part of the same storm system lashing the plains and midwest over the past few days.
Here’s a rundown of how things may play out today.
– A TORNADO WATCH is out parts of western Kentucky until 4am CDT. A line of severe weather will be ongoing in this region very early this morning.
– That line will approach central Kentucky from the west around or shortly after daybreak. This should be in weakening fashion, but will still need to be monitored.
– We need to watch for rain cooled boundaries floating around today. These may fire up additional thunderstorms as the day wears on and any storm can quickly go severe.
– A squall line of storms will sweep eastward across the state this evening into tonight.
– The main threat from today’s storms will be damaging winds and large hail. Isolated tornadoes will be possible… especially across central and western parts of the region.
– Torrential rainfall is a big concern through early Sunday. Parts of the region could top the 3″ mark… mainly in the west and central. This could cause flooding problems.
Today’s Risk Area
Current Watches
Possible Watch Areas
I will send out updates and warnings via twitter: Kentuckyweather or follow along in the twitter feed on the right side of the blog. I will also have updates on my Chris Bailey WKYT Facebook page.
Take care.
Thanks, Chris. Sounds like you and Micah are going to be busy today and tonight. Appreciate you both and everything you do to help keep us safe.
Wow–what a difference location makes today. East of I-65 no rain–and it doesn’t seem to be making much progress this way. West of I-65 widespread 2 to 3 inch totals.
Partly cloudy, 76 degrees in Lawrenceburg. An ideal June day in progress.
There is a wall that is along I-65 and the rain can’t break through. As long as the rain and cloud cover remains over the western half, the less chances of severe weather. I saw the SPC is thinking the same thing by shrinking the risk area.
Agree, clouds from the rains in west KY will keep central ky out of severe weather, I wondering if we will get much rain at this point, Frankfort yesterday got .15 inch and that is the 10 day total!
Just saw where Paducah has had 8 inches of rain in 2 days!
Most of that has fallen since midnight. I think 4.81″ of rain fell at Paducah between 3AM and 7AM local time out there.
Note: I don’t follow Chris on Twitter otherwise I would have known this already. 😉
Thankfully Central KY is above normal in rainfall for the year. If we were not, I’d be worried about drought setting in with the recent dry period
I’m wondering if those huge storms in south west tenn heading toward northern miss will still our moisture today for central KY?
Steal 😉
Have they dropped the tornado watch for te West KY?
the
I see they are thinking about a watch. I hope it is not a tornado watch…
Chris is right about the sun popping out, Frankfort now partly cloudy very humid and feels like instability is increasing rapidly !
I walk outside here in Lexington, next thing you know, it starts pouring rain in seconds, 30 seconds Later, it’s done, 5 seconds later, the sun pops out and its sunny, and even more hot and humid than before.
It does have that feel of severe weather, where this happens is the question ? I’m sure Chris will be on top if it.
Are we looking at a certain time for storms?
I’m sorry, maybe I should have asked if anybody is having storms now?
Radar showing storms firing up in south central and south west KY moving north North east and developing.
It could rain anytime from now and on.
Just had a heavy thunder shower in east Frankfort, radar looks juicy to the south west of us!
Got a little rain heading into Shelbyville from Louisville on 64. Sun is trying to peak but still pretty cloudy.
Four letters: B. U. S. T!!
Better to bust than to not say anything at all and really miss it.
This forecast was way overdone. It’s barely rained today. Strike 1 weatherman. Swing and a miss.
I’d rather it be overdone than under. Your comment is a swing and a miss.
Spectacular storm to my South and East in Lawrenceburg. Sitting out on the deck, enjoying the evening, and watching the storm that prompted the warning move off towards Versailles/Lexington. As for us, been a bust in rainfall. All of .09 inches has fallen today, to add to .21 inches yesterday.
Got .40 rain today, I’ll take it, this is the time of year rain begins to play games on certain areas!
Meaning all or a little of nothing!
Im ready for this severe thunderstorm to hit.
This extensive cloud cover seems to indeed be stabilizing things. IIRC, there was even some thought yesterday that a moderate risk of severe wx might be declared today for western KY. But by this morning, SPC had thankfully downgraded the severe threat a bit and things remain relatively benign at present.
SPC just minutes ago had a Mesoscale Discussion for parts of eastern KY and TN; only a 20% chance of a watch at this time.
Looks like all hell about to break loose in Lex.
is this the main line that is coming thru Central KY or more later??
The Weather Channel (and TWC website) now showing video from inside the “Tornado Hunt 2013” SUV when it was thrown by the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado. Sends chills down your spine. This was the same twister that tossed another vehicle from Interstate 40 that killed a mother and her child.
Keep in mind that tornadoes are far from the only danger. Many chasers say they fear lightning even more than twisters, at least when doing observations outside their vehicle. Just last year, a veteran tornado chaser lost his life in a regular car crash while between storms.
On this note, the WKU Storm Chasers have finished their planned two week tour and are safely back in Bowling Green KY. They got some impressive tornado pics:
http://twitter.com/wkustormchase
So much for rain washing the pollen away 🙁