Pleasant for the Time Being

Today was a refreshing sight to behold now that we finally had the sun back.Yes, there are still quite a few clouds in the area but it's an improvement nonetheless. For most of this week, we had to put up with nagging overcast skies and frequent rain, which was heavy at times. All of this was of course the responsibility of Hurricane Patricia's "leftovers". She weakened greatly after making landfall in Mexico several days ago, but the low pressure remained, eventually getting caught up in another system over the southern US, which brought it north. We knew last weekend that we were going to be looking at a lot of rain. From Monday through yesterday, many locations in south-central Kentucky picked up over three inches of rain (mainly areas west of Bowling Green). About 2.5" fell in the city.

Image courtesy NWS Louisville

The good news is that it should alleviate much of our drought problem. The latest map from the US Drought Monitor, issued today, shows areas to the west of the Natcher Parkway were in a moderate drought. The update does not reflect the rain received from Tuesday onwards, so we'll have to wait and see what next week's map looks like to tell the full story. We are now slipping into high pressure, which has helped to bring some sun into the picture. This high will continue to grow and move east. Clouds will clear out tonight as a result, and it looks like we'll be facing cold overnight lows in the 30s. Cloud cover will stay away tomorrow, leaving us with completely sunny skies. Highs will try to make it back to 60°.

I should mention that your trick-or-treating plans for Halloween may be disturbed by some rainfall. Models continue to indicate the onset of some rain on Saturday, probably not arriving until the afternoon or evening. Heavier amounts will be down to our south, but it looks like some scattered showers are possible for Saturday evening and overnight. The blanket of clouds will keep lows in the 50s. Thus, it won't be terribly chilly, but you may want to take this possibility of rain into consideration for your Halloween plans. We'll have a better handle on the situation once tomorrow's data arrives.

Tonight: Clear skies and cold with lows near 37°. Northwest winds at 5 mph.
Friday: Sunshine with light and variable winds. High around 60°.
Friday night: Partly cloudy with calm winds. Low of 43°.

Thanks for reading!
- Caleb Chevalier