WKU Meteorology

The Weather and Climate Forums is a new way for citizens of Kentucky to communicate drought impacts that may affect agriculture, business and industry, the environment, and social and recreational activities. The website can be found at http://forums.kymesonet.org/ and is organized by the Kentucky Climate Center at Western Kentucky University and the Kentucky Mesonet, a high-density, network of automated environmental monitoring stations currently being developed across the commonwealth. Examples of recent postings are a fish kill reported in an impoundment along route 460 in Franklin County due to low lake levels and warm water.

If you are interested in contributing, please go to http://forums.kymesonet.org/ to register.

The drought status of the Southeast has not changed appreciably over the past several weeks as periodic rainfall has kept the drought from spreading or intensifying. As you can see from last week’s U.S. Drought Monitormap, the core of the drought is still centered over northern Alabama, where rainfall is nearly 20 inches short for the year to date. Drought conditions in the Mid-South range from primarily extreme drought over south-central TN to abnormally dry over north-central KY. There is some good news on the horizon… (more…)

Back on June 3rd I produced a post titled “Summer weather outlook for Kentucky” and promised to provide periodic updates throughout the summer. Since meteorological summer is officially half over (June-August), consider this the mid-summer review. I will break down each of my original predictions and summarize with my expectations for the rest of the summer. (more…)