


Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Jackson, KY
Issued by NWS Jackson, KY
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155 FXUS63 KJKL 140620 AAA AFDJKL AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED National Weather Service Jackson KY 220 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 145 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 touch-up to the PoPs and Wx grids through dawn. These minor adjustments have been sent to the NDFD and web servers along with a freshening of the zones, HWO, and SAFs. UPDATE Issued at 1046 PM EDT FRI JUN 13 2025 Showers and storms have mostly left eastern Kentucky for the night. Hi-res guidance shows the chance for some isolated showers across the area overnight, but for most, shower and storm activity has ended for the night. Updated the PoP grids to reflect recent trends and hi-res guidance, but otherwise just blended in recent obs and freshened product wording. UPDATE Issued at 750 PM EDT FRI JUN 13 2025 Not too many grid updates needed, as the going forecast was still representative. Did blend in the current obs to try and capture recent trends and tweaked PoP grids to carry the ongoing rough line of showers and storms traversing the CWA. Current area that we`re watching closely is our far southeast, close to the VA border. That area hasn`t been tapped into yet, and has the best instability to work with for the next couple of hours. Will be watching for strong wind gusts and/or heavy downpours. && .SHORT TERM...(This evening through Saturday night) Issued at 330 PM EDT FRI JUN 13 2025 At 330 PM EDT, regional radar showed a loosely organized "line" of thunderstorms stretching from southwestern Ohio through Central Kentucky/Middle Tennessee and across Alabama. Impacts to the JKL CWA have largely been limited to the Lake Cumberland area so far. Filtered sunshine has buoyed temperatures into the lower and middle 80s across the forecast area this afternoon while dew points hold within a few degrees of 70F at most locales. This soupy air mass is courtesy southerly flow on the eastern side of a sluggish upper level trough and weak surface low over Missouri. As the aforementioned loosely organized line of storms pushes east this afternoon and evening, it will encounter 1000 to 2000 J/kg of MLCAPE and 25 to 30 kts of EBWD. This will be sufficient for transient organization of cells in stronger line segments and perhaps some brief, weak supercellular structures. Still anticipate that the most intense activity could produce strong to marginally damaging wind gusts and perhaps some hail (most likely sub-severe). While PWATs are high (1.6 to 1.9 inches) across the area, several days of relatively dry weather have allowed creek and river levels to fall and soils to dry out somewhat. Thus incoming rainfall this afternoon/evening should largely wet the soil without causing significant flash flood concerns. (Susceptible locations could see some elevated water flows and urban/poor drainage ponding). The more widespread convection will diminish to the east after sunset, though some chance of a shower or thunderstorm does linger overnight as the low pressure system drifts into southern Illinois by sunrise Saturday. A resurgence in shower and thunderstorm activity can then be expected again on Saturday into Saturday night as the upper low/trough and its surface reflection coast to near Louisville, KY. Continued high PWATs, a deep warm cloud layer and skinny CAPE will continue to favor heavy rainers with sluggish storm motions around 20 kts. Additional rainfall on top of soils already saturated (by prior storms today and tonight) will lead to a risk for isolated flash flooding. Accordingly, WPC has all of eastern Kentucky under a Marginal Risk for Excessive Rainfall. Additionally, ~25 knots of effective shear will once again be sufficient for some storm organization. In sensible terms, expect an unsettled start to the weekend with multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms. Showers/thunderstorms could occur at just about any time of the day or night but will be most widespread in the afternoon and early evening. Skies will generally feature at lot of clouds and some filtered sunshine each day. Otherwise, it will be humid with daily high temperatures in the lower to middle 80s and nighttime lows in the mid to upper 60s. .LONG TERM...(Sunday through Friday) Issued at 416 PM EDT FRI JUN 13 2025 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 06Z TAFS through 06Z Saturday night) ISSUED AT 220 AM EDT SAT JUN 14 2025 Showers have temporarily cleared out and allowed all sites to become VFR, for a time. Fog is the main concern through the rest of the night owing to the wet ground and high, thin clouds. The fog may bring some of the TAF sites to MVFR or lower conditions. Any lingering fog will dissipate by mid-morning, before chances for showers and storms increase again into the afternoon and carry on to the end of the TAF period. Similar to Friday, these showers and storms would bring gusty and erratic winds and lower visibilities to any impacted TAF sites. Outside of any storms, winds through the rest of the night will be light and variable, before increasing out of the southwest from midday on at between 5 and 10 kts. && .JKL WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$ UPDATE...GREIF SHORT TERM...GEERTSON LONG TERM...HAL AVIATION...HAS/GREIF