Fall is in the Air!

Heavy rain swept through the area this morning ahead of a cold front which is currently tracking through the region. Bowling Green picked up just over a half inch of rain last night through this morning with higher totals to the north and west. Flooding occurred in some of our far northern counties where torrential rain tracked over the same areas last night and early this morning. Over 6.5 inches of rain fell across Louisville within the past 24 hours. A few counties in far western Kentucky even saw a tornado warning issued with the round of storms that moved through yesterday evening. No damage has been reported with any of those storms.

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The threat for severe weather will remain to the east of our area ahead of the cold front, but we will see only a few lingering showers for the rest of our Sunday. Clouds will persist through the evening.

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The rain chances will continue to diminish as we head into the evening hours with clearing overnight.

After a warm start to October, a more seasonable pattern will begin to set in this week. Temperatures will find themselves on the chilly side as we head into our Monday morning. You won’t need that winter coat quite yet, but a jacket will be handy tomorrow, especially if your heading out before 10am. The sun will be out again tomorrow, but temperatures will only reach the mid 60s. Temperatures will again dip into the mid 40s for Tuesday morning and will climb to around 70 degrees by mid afternoon. Temperatures will remain fairly seasonable for the rest of the week with minimal chances for rain over the next five days.

It’s Fall and that means the leaves are changing! Here is a map from The Weather channel breaking down the time of peak foliage for the area. Bowling Green’s foliage peaks around late October.

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So what causes the leaves to change color? Plants use glucose as a building block for growing. The plant turns water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar through a process called photosynthesis which means (putting together with light). The chemical called chlorophyll is what gives the plants their green color. During the winter there is not enough daylight or water for photosynthesis. This means the trees must rest and live off the food stored up during the summer. They begin to shut down the food making process, which results in the disappearing of the chlorophyll. As the green color fades, we begin to see the yellow and orange colors (which have been in the leaves all along). The reason we can’t see these colors in the summer is because they are covered up by the vast amounts of green color.

Weekly outlook:

Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 65. Northwest wind 3 to 8 mph.

Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 69. Calm wind becoming northeast around 6 mph in the morning.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 74.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 75.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.

Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 78.

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