It’s more like late September rather than the 4th of July weekend.  Thursday’s high was only 72 tying the record for the low-high (not to be confused with the Don Ho, “AloooooooHaaaaa”.  )  The record was last set in 1989.   We also brushed another bit of history with Wednesday and Thursday not getting above 73 this was only the 10th time in all of Lexington’s weather records that we’ve had back to back July days that cool.  The last was in 1979 and in fact it happened 4 times in 12 years going back to the late 60’s…which was a climatologically cool time with the cold phase of the PDO in place (btw where it is now and has been for most of the last decade).  It didn’t happen for 30 years here during the warm phase of the PDO (btw that’s Pacific Decadal Oscillation…one of the strongest climate signals we see and it will be in its cool phase most likely for a couple of more decades for those of you keeping score at home…subtle hint…)   

With most folks having a 3 day weekend for the holiday midpoint of summer (bracketed by Memorial and Labor Days) you’d think we’d all be getting ready to sweat.  Now you may be, but it’s not really going to be the weather’s fault.  Friday is looking like the best day of the holiday weekend with more sunshine and a high actually around 80 (normal is 85).  Unfortunately an approaching warm front and a northwest flow aloft look to conspire to bring scattered thunderstorms to the rest of the weekend with Sunday having a slightly better chance than the 4th Saturday.  Neither day is looking like a washout…but with the scattered storms around, including fireworks time Saturday,  have a plan ‘b’ ready just in case.

Also, beginning July 4th it’s the annual Lemon Aid Days to benefit the Salvation Army.  Thousands of kids will be holding Lemonade stands throughout the month of July to raise money for The Army’s Women’s and Children’s Shelter in Lexington.  It’s kids helping kids which is simply terrific.  If you’re interested in having a Lemon Aid stand, simply click the tile on our front page (it’s toward the bottom so you may have to scroll down).   I’m honored to be this year’s honorary chairman and to be a part of today’s kickoff news conference downtown.  Last year the kids raised over $20,000 for the Salvation Army…which stays right here.  Let’s see just how much more we can raise this year!

So that’ll do it tonight.  This weekend as you celebrate the holiday remember the meaning behind it…INDEPENDENCE…it’s a word that doesn’t get used much anymore.

Enjoy the holdiay and be safe.

We’re baaaaaaackkkkk….

Hey kids…hope all is well with you…long time no hear, but now with that little vacation thingy over it’s time to jump back into the weather.

Just a couple of quick afternoon notes to ponder…we could be in record territory this afternoon for the dreaded minimum maximum record (low-high).  72 last done in 1989 so we’ll be in the ballpark.

Also, we may be about to do something that hasn’t happened in about a quarter century…back to back July days less than 73.

Friday looks to be the best of the holiday ‘weekend’.

More coming later…so enjoy the rest of the day!

Welcome to summer…and this time we really mean it with the solstice occurring at 1:45 Sunday morning as it was directly over the Tropic of Cancer.  It’s the day when the sun is highest in the sky, midday shadows are at their smallest and the daylight is longest.  We talk about Memorial Day as the unofficial beginning of summer.  June 1st is the beginning of ‘meteorological summer’.  Sunday is now offiically summer by all definitions…including the weather.

Heat and humidity will be continuing through the week with only a few cooling t-storms around, especially early in the week. 

With all the heat wouldn’t a nice cool glass of lemonade do the trick?  Well if you can hold off quenching your thirst until July 4th the money you spend at your neighborhood’s local lemonade stand may go to a very good cause.  Beginning July 4th the 3rd annual Salavation Army’s Lemon-Aid Days begins and last through most of July.  Kids from all over Kentucky can register with The Salvation Army to hold Lemon Aid stands and the money raised stays right here in The Bluegrass.  It’s kids helping kids which is such a terrific message to send.  To learn more about Lemon-Aid simply go to their website  http://www.lemonaiddays.org/ and find out what you can do.  The need of the Salvation Army isn’t just at Christmas but lasts thoughout the year so this summer fund raiser is really great.

With summer comes summer vacations and your friendly neighborhood weatherguy begins his Monday for a week and a half.  Bill’s Blog will be going on a blog break until July 2nd. 

Enjoy your Monday, and your upcoming week.

We finally hit 90 this year (actually 91) with dewpoints that were above 70 it was really one of the first uncomfortable days of the year.  Over the coming days (which most people would call the weekend) the heat won’t break much, but we should see the dews drop down into the low to mid 60’s Sunday making for a hot, but more tolerable day.

There is still a risk for some big thunderstorms late Friday night/predawn Saturday.  The threat is greater north of the Ohio and I-64 is a fair approximation of the southern boundary with the initial line.  Today’s heat and humidity is just sitting there waiting to explode, but so far and cap of warm air aloft is preventning that.  Over time, the cap will erode and storms will increase in number and potentially severity late tonight/early Saturday.  Damaging winds would be primary threat.

As of 10:00 we’ve got a couple of supercell storms ahead of the main line.  Those have prompted a tornado watch for the Cincinnati area, but that’s it so far.  These storms should pass just north of us, but it will be close and we’ll be watching it through the night.  The primary line is from near South Bend to just north of St. Louis.  This is our primary concern by early Saturday morning. 

What will likely happen is all of this will gel into another big Mesoscale Convective System similar to the ones that have passed through here this week.  It will plow through early Saturday with again the northern 1/2 or so of the area in the risk for severe storms.  The front is lagging behind the line, so it may generate more storms Saturday, especially across the southern and eastern parts of the area.

Stay weather aware tongiht and Saturday…the storms will be scattered, but those who get them will see some nasty weather.

Otherwise, enjoy your weekend.

At the risk of sounding like a Christmas Carol…Silent Night….what a great thing tonight…no storms for a while.

That after a day Thursday where a derecho (pronounce dare-AY-show) roared in from the northwest with widespread 40+ mph wind and isolated 60 to 70 mph winds.  The rain was torrential but also fell with a very sharp gradient.  The southisde of Fayette County had about an inch of rain which fell in less than an hour according to our Pinnacle Storm Tracker.  Meanwhile our Andover Storm Tracker had only a couple of tenths.  The line blasted into southeast Kentucky and evolved into a squall line. 

The lull in the activity began Thursday afternoon and looks to last into late Friday afternoon.  However, the stage is being set for another round of severe weather for us Friday night.

First off…a blast of heat and humidity arrives Friday with a our highs surging to around 90.  We’d be shooting for the mid 90s given this set up except that we’ve got so much standing water and wet soil around that it should slow down the heat just a bit.  The heat is also coming in aloft putting a cap on the atmosphere which should keep your Friday dry.  A thunderstorm grows when the air in the updraft is warmer than the surrounding air (same process that lets a hot air balloon rise).  Well when you have warmth aloft the updraft can’t rise…and storms can’t form.

Now let’s talk about how we get to the storm threat.  There shoud be ongoing thunderstorms across the Midwest as Friday starts.  These will be ahead of a cold front that is taking aim at us.  As the front moves southward it will encounter the increasingly hot and humid air (high octane atmospheric energy).  The cold front will be #1 acting as a convergence  point to force air upward and #2 cooling the air aloft letting the updrafts of storms to rise explosively.  Now complicating this will be an unusually strong  jet stream intersecting all of this which can get the updrafts rotating which leads to severe storms with hail and damaging winds and in the extreme tornadoes.

The greatest threat looks to be across the northern third of the area Friday night and areas just north of the Ohio poised for a major severe weather outbreak.  The prime threat time for us looks to be from mid evening on Friday.  As the day unfolds we can begin to pinpoint the areas and times of greatest risk.  Speaking of that, don’t be surprised if the Storm Predicition Center highlights areas not too far from us with a “high” risk for severe weather.

This barrage of severe weather looks to take a break beginning Sunday and lasting into part of next week.

Check back during Friday and we’ll be updating with the severe risk.

Otherwise stay cool and enjoy your Friday!

The outflow boundary has become the focus for a potent line of storms this afternoon.  The line continues sagging southward with incredible lightning displays and occasional severe wind gusts.  The outflow passed by Lexington too early in the day to ignite storms, but really has done the trick across southern Kentucky.  See the webcast (if you read this before Thursday morning) for a look at the outflow.

Discrete cells fired up closer to the Tennessee border and spawned several tornado warnings.  Like yesterday several funnel cloud reports but not much else as of now.  There have been a few large hail reports too.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH  across the southern 1/2 of Kentucky…does not include Lexington.

Severe storm in progress south of Corbin in Whitley County. 

Life threatening flooding is occurring in Letcher County with 4 to 6 FEET of water flowing through downtown Neon.

Whitley County storm just had a tornado warning issued for areas from Williamsburg northward.

An old outflow boundary now passing south of I-64 will likely be the focus for many mroe storms this afternoon.

Stay with LEX 18 and the MAXTRACK Live Doppler.

It turned in to a very active afternoon/evening with numerous severe weather reports and tornado warnings.  At this point we’ve had no confirmaiton of tornadoes…but a lot of wind damage across southern Kentucky (may have also been a late evening storm in Lewis County that had tornado warnings with it, but that wasn’t part of the main system.

Look at the damage from the intitial line.  It was one area of concentration where a bowing segment caused all the damage.

Look at that swath across the southern 2 tier of counties from west to east across the whole state.  It was amazing to watch.  By the way that ‘bowing’ is caused by a low level jet stream plowing into the back of the line and the storms can then focus that energy and direct it toward the ground.  Even though there was damage fortunately there wasn’t anything severe.  We were also fortunate as there was a lot of shear, the changing of wind direction which implies rotation on a radar, and many funnel cloud reports, but as of now no touchdowns.  It’s better to err on the side of caution with these warnings which is why they get issued for ‘radar indicated’ storms.  Our reporter who was in Corbin when the storm hit said it did get nasty and it did knock out a lot of power.

Another round of storms is possibile Wednesday afternoon, but not as widespread as Tuesday.  It will also be an introduction to real heat and humidity which you’ll feel late in the week.

Enjoy your Wednesday, and do stay weather aware during the afternoon.

Northern part of the squall line showing some intensification near Bardstown…will continue to watch that.  Here’s the link to MAX

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH CONTINUES

The greatest threat for wind damage is now looking to be across the southern 1/3 of the area roughly from Lebanon to Stanford to Berea to Jackson and south.  Damaging bow echo continues moving through southern Kentucky with leading edge approaching Campbellsville and Columbia now.

Folk around Lake Cumberland need to seek safe harbor now.

Check the MAXTRACK Live Doppler on our front page for the latest storm position.

Stay weather aware!