


Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Jackson, KY
Issued by NWS Jackson, KY
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606 FXUS63 KJKL 141401 AFDJKL AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Jackson KY 1001 AM EDT Sat Jun 14 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - Unsettled weather will continue through the first half of next week, with showers and thunderstorms expected on most days. - Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through the weekend with strong to damaging wind gusts the main concern. - Repeated rounds of showers and thunderstorms will bring a low- end threat of excessive rainfall and resulting isolated instances of high water or flash flooding through the weekend. && .UPDATE... Issued at 1001 AM EDT SAT JUN 14 2025 Forecast was updated to remove mention of valley fog for the remainder of daytime forecast period. UPDATE Issued at 730 AM EDT SAT JUN 14 2025 No significant changes were made to the forecast with mainly just the inclusion of the latest obs and trends for the T/Td/Sky grids along with a tweaking of the near term PoPs per current radar. These minor adjustments have been sent to the NDFD and web servers. && .SHORT TERM...(Today through Sunday) Issued at 445 AM EDT SAT JUN 14 2025 08Z sfc analysis shows low pressure moving into southern Illinois early this morning. This is supporting a mild and moist environment through Kentucky out ahead of the low and under mostly cloudy skies. In addition, showers and thunderstorms lasted well into the evening on Friday but have since shifted off to the east of the state and dissipated leaving eastern Kentucky mostly dry - just as new development is taking place to the west of the forecast area. Damp ground conditions and some thinness or holes in the mainly high clouds have also led to areas of fog early this morning, primarily in the valleys. Currently, temperatures and dewpoints are fairly uniform in the mid to upper 60s, amid light winds. The models, and their individual ensemble suites, are in good agreement aloft through the short term portion of the forecast. They all depict a small, weakening, and filling 5h trough working slowly east into and though Kentucky today and tonight. This feature passes through the JKl CWA with some energy at mid-levels this afternoon. A looser pattern aloft remains behind on Sunday with heights just on the high side of the mean for this time of year - just northwest of an area of ridging over Florida. The fairly small model spread through Sunday evening supported using the NBM as the starting point for the forecast grids with minimal adjustments needed - mainly to add in some timing details from the latest CAMs for the PoPs and Wx grids through the bulk of the weekend. Sensible weather features another damp weekend replete with scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms around. On both days the convection will peak in the late afternoon due to a strong diurnal component for magnitude and areal coverage. While not as favorable as yesterday, forecast soundings of tall skinny CAPE suggest that we could still see a couple of strong storms with gusty winds and brief heavy rain the main concerns. Training of cells could also lead to localized flooding through the weekend but widespread high water issues are not expected. At night, conditions will be mild and fairly uniform with a minimum in convective activity expected, but also a decent potential for areas of fog toward midnight lasting through dawn - favoring the valleys and depending on where the concentrated areas of rain fell during the day. The changes to the NBM starting point were primarily focused on adjustments to the PoPs per the latest CAMs guidance for timing and magnitude through Sunday evening. As for temperatures - did not deviate far from the NBM guidance through the period given the high moisture content. .LONG TERM...(Sunday night through Friday) Issued at 540 AM EDT SAT JUN 14 2025 The main adjustments to the extended where to add in some terrain detail to the NBM temperatures each night after Thursday. Did also keep a threat of showers and thunderstorms around into Saturday afternoon with some uncertainty to the ability of a late week front to clear the area. The previous long term discussion follows... The period will start with the main prevailing westerlies aloft in rather zonal flow across the Great Lakes and New England, with general troughiness in weaker flow extending southward over much of the remainder of the eastern CONUS. A nearly stationary surface frontal boundary is forecast to be laid out just to our north near the Ohio River, with a warm and humid air mass in place on the south side over our area. Although models will often have a difficult time handling weak embedded features very far in advance, they are at least suggesting that a minor shortwave trough (left over from the upper low currently over MO) will be over KY on Sunday, continuing to weaken and shift eastward. Considering all the aforementioned factors, showers and thunderstorms can be expected on Sunday, especially during and just after peak heating. Flow aloft is expected to be weak (mostly 15 kts or less below 500 mb) and precipitable water rather high at 1.5-2", which would support localized heavy rainfall in slow moving thunderstorms. Activity should largely diminish during the night with loss of instability and little advection. Sunday`s shortwave should be departing to the east on Monday, potentially leaving weak ridging aloft to be passing over during the day. The frontal boundary is also expected to weaken (on its way to dissolving). These factors would lessen the coverage of convective precip. However, no change in air mass will occur and diurnal destabilization should still result in showers/thunderstorms popping up, with an overall diminishing trend with loss of instability Monday evening. After this point, model details become sketchier. The general idea in both the GFS and ECMWF is for another weak upper trough to approach and pass over the area with an uptick in precip on Tuesday. Once this second wave departs to the east, models show little in the way of features for Wednesday. This gives another day of lessened precip coverage similar to Monday. While all of this is going on, a somewhat more significant upper trough embedded in faster flow will move onshore on the west coast on Monday and make its way east across the CONUS. It is forecast to approach and move through our area on Thursday and maybe into Thursday night. It`s size and strength should support a cold front to move through our area during that time. The front and upper support bring another heightened POP. Somewhat drier air behind the front and the eastward departure of the upper trough would result in little or no precip on Friday. && .AVIATION...(For the 12Z TAFS through 12Z Sunday morning) ISSUED AT 750 AM EDT SAT JUN 14 2025 Showers have started to redevelop through the area but will probably miss most of the TAF sites until later in the morning. This activity and thicker mid layer clouds have likely helped to limit the fog during the post dawn hours. Chances for showers and storms increase again into the afternoon and carry on for much of the evening before fading out and becoming more of a limited/MVFR fog concern into dawn Sunday. Winds, away from any storm, will be light and variable through midday before picking up a tad from the southwest at around 5 kts - diminishing again after dark. && .JKL WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$ UPDATE...GEERTSON SHORT TERM...GREIF LONG TERM...HAL/GREIF AVIATION...GREIF