A very warm and stormy pattern kicks in

Meteorologist Jordan Smith has a look at your Saturday evening forecast!

May 6, 2023

WTVQ News Desk,

Good Saturday evening everyone and Happy Derby day! It has been a FANTASTIC day across the entire state of Kentucky, including over at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Starting tomorrow we have a VERY active weather pattern kicking off. Here are todays weather headlines.

First order of business is a multi day severe weather threat. We have a chance for strong to severe thunderstorms Sunday – Tuesday! Sundays timeline is 10am – 4pm! You can see a line of storms dropping in from the north on future cast just before lunch.

That line will continue to sink towards the south into the afternoon.

I think this line is definitely strong, but the chance is there for some storms to go severe even though the chance is low. Our entire area is under a MARGINAL (Level 1/5) risk for severe weather for tomorrow (SAUNDAY). Even though this isn’t a great chance, any severe chance is taken seriously by the ABC 36 Storm Team.

Damaging wind gust and heavy rain are the main concerns, but some hail and a tornado or two can’t be ruled out. Here are the threat levels showing just that.

So again, I will stress this is NOT a big severe risk but it is a risk nonetheless. Additional strong to severe storms are likely to fire up both Monday and Tuesday! The SPC already has another MARGINAL risk (level 1/5) for Monday.

We will need to watch to see if a risk gets added for Tuesday as well. Wednesday we take a break from the stormy action with sunny skies and highs near 80. That is the only completely dry day across central and eastern Kentucky for the next week, at least. Scattered showers and storms start back up Thursday – next weekend. No day looks like a wash out at this time and once again we need to watch for some strong to severe storms during this time.

Something else to watch for is flash flooding issues to develop. With so much moisture availible, these storms can drop a lot of rain. Forecast models are spitting out 2″-4″+ through Friday!