Late July heat begins to build in this week
We could see our first extended stretch of 90 degree plus highs in the coming days
It was a warm and muggy start to the week Monday across Central and Eastern Kentucky with a few isolated to scattered storms popping up thanks to a weak boundary sitting just off to our northwest. Afternoon highs reached the mid and upper 80s and the upward trend will continue as we progress through the week. There is the chance for a few isolated to scattered storms into the early hours of Tuesday. Some of those could produce some gusty to even damaging winds if they pulse up to severe levels but those should be few and far between.
The big story this week will be summer heat building into the area as the bubble of hot air camped over the Southern U.S. the last few weeks builds eastward. Even though it will be a slow process, it should get progressively hotter each day this week. On Tuesday, most locations should reach the upper 80s with 90 degree highs on the table for the Lexington metro area. There is a chance of a stray to isolated storm during the afternoon warmth but the chances should be a little less overall.
Our hottest stretch of weather should be in the Wednesday through Friday time frame as widespread low to mid-90s are expected for afternoon highs. While our humidity levels will be elevated, they shouldn’t be “off the charts”, which would keep heat indices around the 100 degree mark during the peak heating late in the week. As I mentioned late last week, a lot of the data is still trying to crank up highs into the mid to upper 90s but we’ve got a lot of moisture in the ground and the vegetation is still very lush and green. With that scenario it is a little harder for the sun to heat the surface up, so low to mid-90s seems a little more realistic. Keep in mind we could potentially overachieve by a few degrees for highs but anyway you slice it up you’ll need to use caution and slow it down during the hottest part of the day.
A frontal boundary should drop in from the north over the weekend to fire off a few scattered storms during the afternoon hours, thus taking the edge off the heat as highs reach the upper 80s and low 90s.
ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
MONDAY NIGHT: Warm with a few storms. Lows in the upper-60s.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny and hot, a stray storm possible. Highs in the upper-80s to around 90 degrees.
TUESDAY NIGHT: Fair skies, warm and muggy. Lows around 70 degrees.
