at 8:20 PM by Pierce Larkin

WxRecap: Heat and Evening Severe Storms

Today wasn’t overly wild like yesterday was, but today was wild in a much, much different sense.

This was the site across the region today, much to the sadness to many kids and their ice cream cones. h/t giphy.com
This was the site across the region today, much to the sadness of many kids and their ice cream cones. h/t giphy.com

A surface low was propagating into the Mid Atlantic states from southeastern Canada, and along to its west was a cold front. For the majority of the day, we weren’t too influenced by it, outside of westerly to west-southwesterly flow. This, in combination with substantial sunshine across the region, created very high temperatures across the state. Highs were the warmest of the year across he majority of the state, with highs reaching the upper 90s.

The highs from today across the state. h/t KY Mesonet
The highs from today across the state. h/t KY Mesonet

We have had this nailed down pat over the past few days, as I started talking about the potential for the extreme heat on Tuesday. What many may not have expected were the severe thunderstorms that up and rolled through here again this evening.

h/t @NWSSevereTstorm
h/t @NWSSevereTstorm

The cold front that I mentioned before began to roll into the region about mid afternoon, and was moving into a very warm, moist and unstable environment across the region. This allowed for intense thunderstorms to develop and move southeastward into the region.

The models performed poorly in developing these thunderstorms, but understanding the synoptic pattern the past few days allowed for our forecasts from Tori Schow and I to pan out successfully today.