Good Thursday, everyone. It’s another hot and humid day across Kentucky as we the threat for a few storms shows up for some. These storms lead us into the 4th of July holiday weekend and look to increase a bit.
Temps today are similar to Wednesday with 90-95 degree highs and a heat index from 100-105 for many. By Kentucky heat waves, this one has been pretty underwhelming in terms of not even coming close to criteria for Extreme Heat in our region.
A storm or two will develop later today into the early evening with the best chance being across the west and south. There’s a low-end risk for a strong or severe storm…
A better chance for storms to go up is with us on Friday as a few clusters of boomers show up. The future radar shows this well…
The Storm Prediction Center as a low-end risk for a few severe storms for much of the region…
The 4th of July itself looks seasonably toasty with temps around 90 and more storms going up from time to time, but this won’t be a washout. Just like Friday, there’s a low-end risk for a few severe storms…
Showers and storms should increase a little more for Sunday and Monday…
The pattern looks active for much of next week into the middle of the month as the jet stream starts to carve out another dip in the east.
Here’s the EURO from Monday through July 16th…
And the GFS for the same period…
As always, I leave you with your daily tracking toys…
Current watches
Possible Watch Areas
Make it a wonderful Wednesday and take care.
Wednesday was another hot one in the Bowling Green area. At 4:25pm CDT, my PWS recorded a high temperature of 100°F, a dewpoint 76.6°F, and a heat index of 116.1°F.
Joe, Take Care, That is a serious life threatening situation. I went outside yesterday when the air temperature was 93 degrees and the dew point was 72 degrees. I was back indoors within 10 minutes. Can’t take the heat like I use to. Not looking forward to my Doctor’s appointment at 2:00 this afternoon. After the 4th of July, I’m ready for Autumn like weather to begin.
Why downplay this heat?
Jeff, hoping you are enjoying the heat. It’s too bad that this part of the Country has such high dew point readings.
After posting yesterday’s PWS temperatures, I checked local Mesonet site, which is Warren County south (farm), located 1.2 miles from my home. The high temperature reading at the site was 93.0°F, which is 7° less than what my PWS instruments recorded. I then checked two other PWS stations, each located less than a quarter mile from me, and found that their max temperatures were less than one half of a degree difference. So local geography really does make a difference!
Also Joe, the higher the elevation the lower the dew point.
Schroeder, all 4 sites are at exactly the same altitude.
Joe, your talking about the actual air temperature at the same elevation. I was referring to the reduction of the dew point as one goes to a higher elevation.
Here is the link for the climate summary for the Chicago area for June, which saw temperatures average just below normal with above normal precipitation. We had fifteen days in a row of below normal temps between June 14-28, with only one 90-degree day for the month, and four days of severe weather events. https://weather.gov/lot/June2026
The low temperature at O’Hare Airport on July 1st was 80 degrees, which set a new record for the warmest low temperature for the date. The high was 95. Here in the SW Suburbs, the high was 92 and the low 77. O’Hare Airport is close to Chicago and has a lot of concrete, which retains heat.
Mike, Here in Maple, where there is not many roads and roof tops it’s 91 degrees with a 73 dew point.
Concrete retains heat. Yes. This is why it’s really weird the airports are where “official” readings are recorded.
Yeah, It doesn’t make sense at all.