More unseasonably warm air to close out the week

Afternoon highs will be in the low 80s once again into Good Friday

1 hour ago

T.G. Shuck,

We’ve enjoyed a summer-like stretch of weather to close out March and kick off April this week across Central and Eastern Kentucky and we saw more of the same on Thursday. With a mix of clouds and sunshine along with southwest winds gusting 30 to 35 miles per hour at times, afternoon highs surged back into the low to mid-80s across the board, threatening record high temperatures for the second day in a row! Other than a few isolated pop-up storms with the afternoon warmth, most locations remained dry so it was a fantastic day to be outdoors and enjoy an early taste of summer.

More summer-like air is on tap for Good Friday as a wave of energy and a frontal boundary remain just off to our northwest. The front will be close enough to help generate a few scattered showers and storms but it doesn’t look like a total wash-out. That’s good news for the opening of the spring meet at Keeneland but definitely take the rain gear along if you are headed out to the track. We should see enough sunshine along with the persistent southwest wind to push afternoon highs back in the low-80s once again, which is a solid 20 degrees above average for early April.

Heading into Easter weekend a cold front will finally make its way through the commonwealth so look for a change in our overall weather pattern. We’ll enjoy one last day of summer-like conditions as afternoon highs run back into the upper 70s to around 80 degrees. As we get deeper in the day, more widespread showers and storms are expected to develop just ahead of the front so our rain chances will be on the rise for sure. Keep that in mind for any outdoor plans you may have over the holiday weekend. The showers and storms should be departing to the east into the early hours of Easter Sunday so hopefully much of the area is dry in time for sunrise services. The rest of the day should be dry and cooler with a west to northwest breeze ushering in much cooler air compared to what we’ve enjoyed the last several days. Afternoon highs should top out into the mid to upper 50s, which is just a few degrees below average but you’ll definitely be able to feel the difference if you are outdoors.

Look for a tranquil stretch of weather into early next week with some sunshine and highs jumping back into the upper 50s and low-60s on Monday. It appears a dry cold front will slide through the region into early Tuesday bringing a reinforcing shot of cooler air so temperatures will be knocked back a notch into the low to mid-50s. We will see some chilly mornings with lows down in the 30s and a few spots could see some patchy frost during that window so keep that in mind. A return flow should kick in by the mid-week with afternoon highs quickly climbing back through the 60s and beyond.