Unseasonably chilly air hangs around for the late week
After storms Tuesday, it was much cooler for the mid-week and a few flakes may be on the table Thursday morning.
It was a much quieter day on Wednesday across Central and Eastern Kentucky compared to all the stormy and severe weather we dealt with on Tuesday. We’ve already had multiple conformed tornadoes here in the commonwealth with site surveys where damage occurred still on-going so that total is likely to rise. As the strong front that created all the issues moved eastward much colder air moved into the commonwealth with afternoon highs struggling into the upper 40s and low 50s with breezy conditions. With a few peeks of sunshine adding to the instability and an upper low to our northwest, a few gusty showers and isolated storms developed and produced some small hail at times.
The winter-like feel to the air is going to continue into the day on Thursday as the upper level creeps its way across the Ohio Valley. With temperatures dropping into the mid-30s early Thursday and some moisture around, there is the chance of a few snow showers mixed in with rain showers. There could be a heavy enough burst that may coat some of the grassy areas early but there shouldn’t be any impact to the roadways given the warm ground temperatures. The remainder of the day will be blustery and raw with a few additional chilly showers, gusty west winds, and afternoon highs struggling into the low to mid-40s. This could drop the “feel-like” temperatures into the low to mid-20s during the morning hours.
It appears it will take a couple of days for the upper level system to finally clear the area and allow milder air to return so we are looking at another day of highs in the 40s with breezy conditions as well. This will make for a chilly start for opening day of the spring meet at Keeneland so plan accordingly. We should finally be rid of the stubborn cloud cover and get more in the way of sunshine heading into Saturday so it should feel a little better despite afternoon highs staying a bit below average into the low to mid-50s.
Looking ahead to Solar Eclipse day on Monday, there is a system that should move through the region on Sunday with scattered shower chances. The data is bouncing back and forth with the amount of cloud cover and shower chances Monday. We should see a warm front arc through early in the day so highs will top out around 70 degrees but the big question is how much clearing/drier air do we get in so help with better viewing of the eclipse. Of course we’ll keep an eye on it.
Finally today marks the 50th anniversary of the “Super Outbreak of 1974”, a generational tornado outbreak that is still a benchmark event for severe weather historically. There were 148 tornadoes across 13 states in less than 48 hours. Over 300 people lost their lives with thousands injured. Here in Kentucky, the city of Brandenburg in Meade County suffered a direct hit from an F-5 (the old tornado scale) which essentially wiped out much of the town. There were 31 fatalities in a town of about 1,800. While Xenia, Ohio had the highest death toll with 34 fatalities from an F-5 tornado…this occurred in a city of about 30,000 residents so unfortunately Brandenburg had the highest fatality to population ratio of any city in the outbreak. Parts of Louisville were damaged heavily by a late afternoon tornado with Franklin, Scott and Madison counties here in Central Kentucky seeing some significant damage,
ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Breezy and cold, rain/snow showers. Lows in the mid-30s.
THURSDAY: Blustery and chilly, scattered showers. Highs in the mid-40s.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Still breezy and cold, a few showers. Lows in the upper-30s.
