Past Conditions
Last week the Bluegrass State was stuck in a “rinse and repeat” summertime pattern. Each day featured rounds of scattered to numerous showers and storms. This activity had a diurnal pattern, with coverage increasing by day and decreasing at night. The very moist atmosphere led to storms capable of producing torrential rainfall from time to time. Heavy rainfall is usually fine for a short period of time, but as the week progressed, storm motions started to slow. The longer residence time led to localized flooding.
Overall, the state averaged about 1.5 inches for the week, but the range in accumulations was quite wide because of the scattered coverage. As you can see in the map of weekly rainfall observations below, several areas across the western half of Kentucky got under a half inch. However, a large section of the eastern half saw 2-3+ inches.
Along with scattered storms, we had high humidity. As a rule of thumb, once you start seeing dew points in the middle to upper 60s, it starts getting pretty sticky outside. This week, we saw dew points topping 70 degrees. The worst of the heat was on Saturday. I included an image below from the Kentucky Mesonet showing maximum temperatures. Many across Western Kentucky jumped into the middle 90s! Combined with high humidity, heat indices (what it actually feels like outside), peaked over the century mark.
| 
