Scattered storm chances remain in place into the late week

Our “rinse and repeat” pattern of daily scattered showers and thunderstorms continued on Wednesday as a slow moving upper level system tapped into the warm and humid air mass camped out over the Ohio Valley. While not everyone saw rain, those that did had to deal with locally heavy downpours and some brief high water issues thanks to all the moisture around. Afternoon highs topped out into the mid to upper 80s but some locations were a bit cooler where clouds and showers were more prominent.

The aforementioned upper level energy will begin to pull east of the commonwealth on Thursday but the pop-up storm chances will remain in place across Central and Eastern Kentucky. It will be another warm to hot day with afternoon highs mainly in the upper 80s with the “feel-like” temperatures back in the 90s during the peak heating of the day so make sure and hydrate properly if you’ll be spending time outside for any length of time. Any storms that fire up will be slow moving and bringing the continued potential of locally heavy rainfall.

Heading into Friday we’ll see a slight shift in our weather pattern as a slow moving cold front drops into the Ohio Valley. With plenty of available moisture in place across the area, the chances for more widespread rain and storms will be on the table. Unfortunately we could see multiple rounds of rain that will be slow moving, which will increase the possibility of some flooding given all the recent rains across the commonwealth. There is a “slight” risk for excessive rainfall across the entire commonwealth both Friday and Saturday so if you live in a flood prone area, you’ll need to keep an eye on things. Given the heavy rain threat, there is a Flood Watch of  all of Central and Eastern Kentucky from 2pm Thursday until 2am Sunday morning. With the clouds and showers expected, afternoon highs will back off a few degrees into the low to mid-80s.

The front is expected to finally push to the south of the commonwealth on Sunday, taking the more organized rain and storm chances with it. There should be a few lingering showers and storms around to close out the weekend but overall it should be better for any outdoor plans compared to Saturday as temperatures remain in the mid-80s for afternoon highs. Much of the data continues to support an overall drying trend heading into early next week with mostly sunny skies along with typical mid-July weather as afternoon highs climb back into the upper 80s to around 90 degrees.