Weather Blog: Watching severe weather potential for Friday

Hello cold front! Drier air will be slowly pushing its way through WAVE Country through the afternoon, leading to a less humid feel for all by this evening. As this happens there will be a few isolated storms in Southern Kentucky, but a vast majority of folks will stay dry. Highs today will still be warm, just shy of 90° here in the city. Expect mid 80s tomorrow as high pressure and cooler air get situated over the Great Lakes. Wednesday will easily be the pick of the week!

Friday continues to be a day to watch as a pair of fronts attached to a soon-to-be cutoff low arrive. There will be quite a batch of wind energy associated with this system, especially west of our area over the Mississippi River. At the moment, it looks like the main severe weather chance would be over those areas, closer to Cape Girardeau, MO, Paducah, KY, and Memphis, TN given the westward placement of that wind belt and the timing of the main storms and cold front in WAVE Country, which could very well be at night. Even so, with a warm front in the area we'll still have a shot for strong storms in the afternoon on Friday, if not marginally severe. Keep up with our latest forecasts for more on this. Any increase in speed of this system would increase our severe weather potential by putting us more in the line of fire for the cold front during a higher heat energy time of day.

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Beyond Friday, the forecast becomes even more of a headache. The aforementioned low cuts off from the main wind flow in Canada, forcing it to hang around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley over the weekend. This will bring us a period of disturbed weather during this time, including daily rounds of scattered storms, clouds, and yes, cooler temperatures (not opposed to that one!). There's a chance some of these storms could be marginally severe, but it's still too early to say since cutoff lows are notorious for being difficult to forecast due to their lack of decent steering winds. In short, while the weekend won't be a washout, it's definitely time to make sure your outdoor plans have an indoor backup at times over the weekend.

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For those sick of the heat, the pattern we'll be in next week is a good one. The core of the heat will stay across the Southwest while cooler air and troughiness (low pressure that brings cooler air) will be entrenched over the East. Even the Climate Prediction Center, a branch of the National Weather Service, has picked up on this potential for cooler air in their latest 8-14 day temperature outlook. No 90s in our forecast for the next 2 weeks!