Monday, July 18, 2011

7/18 - 12pm - Heat, Storms on the Way this Week

Many areas across Louisville saw heavy rain yesterday as scattered storms slowly made their way through the area. A setup like that will likely happen this afternoon as well with storms again coming from the north. Any chance of severe storms will stay to our north as the ingredients for this will be in better supply. Look for a high just over 90 degrees this afternoon in the city and a degree or two lower in the suburbs.

Disturbance over IN at 700mb
Tomorrow will be a different story. A small upper-level disturbance will be swinging our direction around a high centered in the Midwest. This should spawn an MCS (Mesoscale Convective System - a big complex of storms) in the afternoon that will move our way from the northwest. The whole evolution of the MCS and exactly who it will affect most is still murky at this point, but it seems the parameters for severe weather will be in place and the SPC has issued a 15% Slight Risk for the region. Damaging winds from bowing segments and even a few spin-up tornadoes are possible with this MCS tomorrow, so be on the lookout for warnings as they're issued.

Let's not forget about the heat! The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Watch along and west of I-65 from Tuesday afternoon to Friday evening due to heat index values reaching up to 110 degrees. Actual forecast highs in Louisville will be in the mid to upper 90's throughout the week, so get ready for an extended heat wave. Humidity won't be as extreme as last week, but even so we'll be seeing dew points getting into the mid 70's near the latter part of the week. Uncomfortable humidity starts with a 60 degree dew point, so you can imagine that mid 70's are pretty bad!

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