Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Louisville, KY
Issued by NWS Louisville, KY
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466 FXUS63 KLMK 060040 AFDLMK Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Louisville KY 840 PM EDT Fri Jul 5 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... * Drier, slightly cooler, and less humid conditions are expected for the weekend. * Remnants of tropical cyclone Beryl may affect the Ohio Valley by late week. && .UPDATE... Issued at 839 PM EDT Fri Jul 5 2024 Cold front is making slow but steady progress eastward across the Ohio Valley. Deep moisture is already rapidly declining with east- central Kentucky still showing PWAT values of even 1.5 inches. As a result convection has really struggled with just a few isolated showers south and east of Lexington, and between Louisville and Cincinnati. Expect that to dissipate and/or exit within the next hour or two, leaving us with a dry and increasingly less humid night. Will update shortly to clean up evening precip mentions, while hi- res products are already updated for hourly trends. && .SHORT TERM /THROUGH SATURDAY/... Issued at 247 PM EDT Fri Jul 5 2024 Main morning wave now is well east of the region at this time. Still have a fairly juicy airmass in place, especially along and east of I- 65, where GOES Sounder places precipitable waters above 2 inches. Values still are fairly high to the west of that, but there`s a clear shut off behind the front that`ll bring an end to any precip chances later this afternoon and evening...from west to east. In the mean time, we are seeing a few showers develop with heating behind that morning wave and clearer skies. Most of these are in western IN, but expect isolated to widely scattered storms to develop across south central IN and central KY this afternoon. GOES also shows a weaker link along a Hodgenville to Shelbyville line. These can bring brief heavy rains and gusty winds...also cannot rule out isolated damaging winds, especially the longer into the afternoon it takes for those storms to get here. At the current pace for that dry line, looks like it makes it to Louisville by 8 PM tonight and then to Lexington by Midnight. Thus will time end of storm chances in Louisville to that 7-8 PM time frame and then Lexington will be more like 9-10, more for the loss of heating. That drier air will continue pushing into the region, allowing lows tonight to fall into the lower 60s west of I-65 and through southern IN. Given the later fall off in humidity, expect points along and east of I-65 in central KY to stay in the mid 60s. Saturday should temperatures a little below normal, with highs generally in the mid 80s. && .LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY/... Issued at 247 PM EDT Fri Jul 5 2024 Saturday Night through Monday Night... Surface high pressure beneath unremarkable SW flow aloft will continue through the weekend. As a result, dry conditions continue into Monday morning across the area. Plenty of sunshine on Sunday will allow for high temperatures to reach up around 90, just slightly above normal for this time of year. Look for comfortable lows in the 60s each night to end the weekend. As we get into Monday and Monday night, mostly dry conditions are still expected however will continue the trend of some shower and storm chances returning to the area, most likely across southern KY. A weak surface low pressure will move into the mid Mississippi River Valley and upper Midwest, and a weak warm frontal boundary will set up over or near our area in response to that. Subtle low level jetting and the associated isentropic lift may be enough to force some convective parcels. Looking at soundings, there is enough of an inversion between 850-700 mb that it will take some pretty good forcing to get a parcel to the LFC, so these are conditional chances. Overall, think that Monday/Monday night will also be more dry than not, but enough data to support at least some shower and t- storm chances, especially by Monday evening. We do get pretty warm on Monday with highs peaking into the low 90s, however dew points look to mostly stay in the mid to upper 60s. Tuesday through Friday... A more active stretch of weather looks to be in play for the mid to late week time frame as an upper trough axis swings through Tuesday & Tuesday night, and then we potentially get the deep moisture plume from the remnants of Beryl by Thursday or Friday. Like the previous forecast of keeping the highest pops for the Tuesday/Tuesday night period. After a relative lull in the upper pattern through Wednesday (still some low chances for a shower/storm), we`ll ramp pops back up later Thursday into Friday. Models are still trying to resolve how the prevailing westerlies over the central US will interact with and pick up Beryl over eastern Texas, and until then can`t have too high of confidence in the exact track of the moisture plume. Nevertheless, it seems that increased pops are a good bet into the late week time frame. Should the path cross directly over our area, then a few concerns would come into play like heavy rainfall, and potential for some rotating cells (NE quadrant) that are typical with remnant tropical systems. && .AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z Sunday/... Issued at 736 PM EDT Fri Jul 5 2024 Cold front just knocking on the door of HNB and will make its way eastward across the terminals this evening. No impact to the TAFs however, as the deep moisture has already been lost, limiting precip to a few showers that are moving across northern Kentucky while southern Indiana and central Kentucky remain dry. Winds from the west will slack off with the loss of boundary-layer mixing after sunset, but still expect speeds around 5 kt through the night at SDF and LEX. Modest advection of cooler and drier air during the mixy part of Saturday will help push speeds back up near 10 kt, and bases of diurnal Cu near 5-6K feet. VFR conditions will persist through and beyond the TAF period. && .LMK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... KY...None. IN...None. && $$ UPDATE...RAS SHORT TERM...RJS LONG TERM...BJS AVIATION...RAS