December 5th, 2011: Climbing the Charts: 2nd Wettest Year in Books!
Welcome to the NEW HOME of the ABC 36 StormTeam Weather Blog. It's good to now be on the same turf as the rest of our weather content.
It's no secret that we've seen LOTS of rain this year. Through midnight last night, Lexington had received 61.92" of rain. Between midnight and 11 AM, we've seen some widespread rain push back into the Bluegrass, and late this morning, we have climbed from the #3 spot to the #2 position on the list of wettest years. As we've mentioned in previous posts, 1935 was our wettest year in the record books, and we are now about 3" away from that mark with 3 1/2 weeks to go.
We're off to a wet start, with 1.43" of rain between midnight and midmorning in Shelbyville, and more than in inch in Owenton as well. The rain has been lighter to the east of I-75.
With the heaviest rain to the west of I-75, a Flood Watch continues to run for Shelby, Henry, Spencer, Nelson, Owen, Grant and Pendleton Counties through this evening and tonight.
Herrington Lake is still recovering from the flooding of early last week. The lake is still a little more than 1' above flood stage, although it is slowly falling. The heavy rain today and this evening MAY slightly slow the fall of the lake, although it will take quite a bit of rain to reverse this trend.
As the rain pulls away and tapers to lighter drizzle on Tuesday, much colder air will arrive. A second wave of low pressure will slide across the Southeastern US on Wednesday evening, and there is increasing agreement, at least among the American models, that it may ride far enough northwest to produce an accumulating snow in southeastern Kentucky. Snow chances are lower in the Bluegrass Region, but it isn't out of the question that some counties near the VA line COULD see several inches of snow at midweek. The time period in question is Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.
As we move beyond our early-week flood threat, we'll address the snow chances for southeastern KY in greater detail in the days ahead.
Until then, be safe on the wet roadways, and stay dry!
Thanks for stopping by.
Geoff
