Late August heat rolls along this week across Central and Eastern Kentucky

We’ve seen a relative moderate summer temperature-wise across Central and Eastern Kentucky along with the Ohio Valley but hot temperatures have built into the region over the last couple of days and it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Afternoon highs reached the upper 80s and low 90s to kick off the week Monday but it felt even hotter with humidity levels and dew-point temperatures on the high side. It will definitely be a week you’ll want to use some common sense and stay hydrated if you have to be out during the heating of the day.

Afternoon highs should reach the low 90s again on Tuesday but a weak boundary dropping southward and splitting Central and Eastern Kentucky may make a bit of a positive impact by keeping temperatures in check the farther east you go. Right now it looks like another day with low 90s for highs in the Bluegrass with upper 80s to around 90 degrees in our far Eastern Kentucky counties. With a light northeast wind bringing drier air in, this should lessen our humidity levels so heat indices shouldn’t be off the charts and be less than what we had on Monday.

Speaking of humidity levels, our “Muggy Meter” will jump around a bit but it shouldn’t be overly oppressive but it won’t take much in the way of humidity to push us into the danger zone with heat indices sneaking over the 100 degree mark. With highs in the mid-90s, much of the model data is kicking out heat index values in between 100 and 105 degrees later in the week. One thing that could impact temperatures may be additional high, thin cirrus clouds in the Wednesday/Thursday time frame, which may hold our afternoon highs down a few degrees so we’ll keep an eye on that. The big bubble of heat hangs tough before we see some changes this weekend, but definitely use caution if you have to spent anytime outdoors this week.

The ridge of heat should break down as a cold front slides into the region late Friday, bringing a few isolated storms along with some slightly “milder” air into Saturday. Afternoon highs should back down into the upper 80s Saturday before a secondary front brings a re-enforcing shot of cooler air by Sunday. Highs to end the weekend should reach the mid-80s with some sunshine, which will be much more comfortable heading into the final week of August! Stay cool out there!

ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
MONDAY NIGHT: Fair skies and warm. Lows in the mid-70s.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny and hot. Highs in the low-90s.
TUESDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear and quiet. Lows in the upper-60s.