Friday, May 18, 2012: A Warm, Bright Weekend... Ending with a (locally slim) Partial Annular Eclipse
Good Friday morning, folks! We've almost made it through the workweek, and the heat is on as we transition into the weekend. We'll be warming into the lower to middle 80s over each of the next four afternoons.
This morning, some of the river valleys of southeastern Kentucky have fog, but that is becoming less of an issue with each passing hour. The fog is dissipating and visibilities, even in the deeper valleys, are improving.
Friday and Saturday will both feature lots of sunshine and only a few clouds in central Kentucky. The Bluegrass Region will remain dry, but an isolated thunderstorm or two may develop on both afternoons near the Tennessee and Virginia state lines. As you'll notice from the latest GFS forecast for precipitation through the middle of the weekend, coverage will be very slim.
Courtesy: Penn State Univ. Dept. of Meteorology
An isolated thunderstorm or two may develop in central Kentucky as early as Sunday afternoon, although the more legitimate rain chance rolls in with a disturbance on Monday and Tuesday.
Also of note, an ANNULAR ECLIPSE (not annual, but annular, which means "ring-like") will occur on Sunday in the late afternoon / early evening, just before sunset. While the total annular eclipse will be out in the southwestern US, we will be on the far eastern edge of the area that may be able to see the moon block a very slim piece of the sun, just before sunset.
Out in the Southwest, folks in places like California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and west Texas will be able to see a more spectacular sight, as the moon passes between the earth and the sun, blocking out most of the sun.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
For a great video about this Sunday's annular eclipse (the likes of which haven't happened since 1994 in the US!), follow this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YX2blo1eRk
Thanks for stopping by the weather blog, and enjoy a summerlike weekend! Any pools that happen to be open early will be pretty popular, especially this Saturday and Sunday.
Geoff
