![National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration](/build/images/header/noaa.d87e0251.png)
![National Weather Service](/build/images/header/nws.4e6585d8.png)
![United States Department of Commerce](/build/images/header/doc.b38ba91a.png)
Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Louisville, KY
Issued by NWS Louisville, KY
Versions:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
504 FXUS63 KLMK 210044 AFDLMK Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Louisville KY 844 PM EDT Sat Jul 20 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... * Shower and storm chances will continue to increase across southern KY for Sunday, then everywhere else by next week. * Locally heavy rainfall possible with any of these showers and storms. && .UPDATE... Issued at 844 PM EDT Sat Jul 20 2024 Brief, isolated showers continue over southern Kentucky this evening. As the sun begins to set, these showers will start to dissipate. In the overnight hours, cloud coverage will increase over the region and winds will be calm to light out of the northeast. Some patchy fog development over southern Kentucky is possible, mostly due to recent rainfall. The current forecast remains on track with low temperatures Sunday morning in the mid-upper 60s. && .SHORT TERM /THROUGH SUNDAY/... Issued at 319 PM EDT Sat Jul 20 2024 Sfc boundary has lifted northward as a warm front across southern KY and northern TN. This is evident on the Kentucky Mesonet where you can see a spread of dew points in the upper 60s to around 70 along the KY/TN border with low/mid 60s further north along the Ohio River into the Blue Grass. There is even a steep PWAT gradient from north to south with 1.5"-1.7" along and just north of the KY/TN border and south of the parkways with 1.1-1.4" from southern IN to just north of the parkways. Current radar images from area WSR-88d show a few isolated showers/storms forming along the KY/TN border, just south of the warm front. This remains the best chance for precipitation this afternoon before activity diminishes with the loss of daytime heating. While the current HRRR wants to develop some isolated activity northward later this evening into the overnight, I just don`t feel there will be enough instability or lift to develop this activity, so continued to trend of diminishing precipitation chances this evening and overnight. Sfc low currently located over the Deep South will work along the quasi-stationary boundary turned warm front that stretches from Louisiana through the TN Valley and eastward towards the Eastern Shores of VA. This will help to increase mid/upper cloud cover over the region overnight. Even with the cloud cover, the increased low-level moisture may increase the possibility of patchy fog across our south in areas near and south of the sfc boundary. As the aforementioned sfc low slowly works into Kentucky during the day tomorrow, it will continue to lift the sfc boundary further north towards the Ohio River and into the Blue Grass by tomorrow afternoon. An upper low coming dropping southward out of the Upper Midwest will open up into a trough and start to swing through the region as well during the day. This will help to increase the low level moisture northward as dew points climb into the mid/upper 60s across north central KY and southern IN while we will have low 70 dew points across southern KY. More scattered showers and thunderstorms will be likely tomorrow afternoon. HREF ensemble mean continues to show 1000-2000 J/kg of SBCAPE across a large portion of central KY tomorrow afternoon but with meager shear and lacking any strong lifting mechanism, while there remains a chance for showers/storms tomorrow afternoon the main impacts will be heavy rain and occasional gusty winds from any activity that forms. Temperatures could be quite warm tomorrow working into the mid/upper 80s. Temperatures could end up being a challenge depending on shower activity as well as cloud cover from the aforementioned systems working across the region tomorrow. && .LONG TERM /SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/... Issued at 319 PM EDT Sat Jul 20 2024 Relatively stationary frontal boundary draped over Kentucky during the next week will bring showers and thunderstorm chances every day with the highest confidence being Monday and Tuesday. Confidence is increasing (as the forecast pattern has been consistent for several days) that several rounds of storms will bring locally heavy rainfall. Model forecast soundings continue to show a low severe threat with the main concern focusing on the heavy rain potential with plenty of column moisture and elevated PW amounts. Gusty winds and small hail would be secondary threats with the strongest storms. Locally excessive rain could result in flooding, especially in the areas with best coverage across the southern and eastern portions of the forecast area. Concerning max temperatures, the work week will be slightly below normal with highs ranging in the low and mid 80s. Temperatures will be highly dependent on storm/cloud activity each day. Heading to the end of the week and into the weekend, max temps will climb to around normal in the mid to upper 80s. && .AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z TUESDAY/... Issued at 737 PM EDT Sat Jul 20 2024 VFR conditions will remain for this TAF cycle. In the overnight hours, light northeasterly winds will prevail with SCT-BKN mid and high level clouds. These clouds, along with limit precipitation will keep fog development to a minimum in the early morning hours. There is a small chance for fog at BWG and RGA, however, confidence is quite low. On Sunday, low and mid level clouds will begin to build into the region from the northwest. Winds will remain light out of the northeast. In the late afternoon, showers and storms will be possible. && .LMK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... KY...None. IN...None. && $$ UPDATE...SRM SHORT TERM...BTN LONG TERM...MCK AVIATION...SRM