410 FXUS63 KJKL 131155 AAA AFDJKLAREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED National Weather Service Jackson KY 755 AM EDT Mon Oct 13 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Dry, seasonably pleasant weather continues across eastern Kentucky through the work week.
- Temperatures will remain near or just above climatological averages for the duration of the forecast period.
- While confidence in specific details remains low, the next chance of showers/storms will come next weekend.
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.UPDATE... Issued at 725 AM EDT MON OCT 13 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. These minor adjustments have been sent to the NDFD and web servers along with a freshening of the zones.
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.SHORT TERM...(Today through Tuesday) Issued at 435 AM EDT MON OCT 13 2025
08Z sfc analysis shows high pressure over the Ohio Valley continuing to dominate the weather for Kentucky. There remains a significant storm off the Southeast Coast that is sending some high clouds into the eastern parts of the area drifting west and dissipating. These clouds did slow down the radiational cooling a bit in the east but the rest of the area saw an enhanced ridge to valley temperature difference along with the development of fog in the river valleys. Currently, temperatures range from the mid 50s on the hills to the mid 40s in the western low spots. Meanwhile, amid light and variable winds, dewpoints are generally in the mid 40s west to the lower 50s in the east - under the clouds.
The models, and their individual ensemble suites, continue to be in excellent agreement aloft through the short term portion of the forecast. They all depict a large 5h trough consolidating to the east of Kentucky with its core of mid level energy. While this occurs, ridging will nose into Kentucky from the southwest still keeping the pattern quiet and benign over this part of the state through Tuesday evening. The models` persistent small spread supported the NBM as the starting point of the grids with minimal adjustments needed - mainly just terrain driven enhancements to the hourly temperatures at night.
Sensible weather features seasonably warm temperatures during the days with dry conditions into the new work week. Any lingering high clouds from the sfc cyclone well east of Kentucky will likely not interfere with the dry air`s ability to warm each day. Typical valley fog can be expected late at night (and early each morning) along with modest ridge to valley temperature differences.
The changes to the NBM starting point were primarily focused on elevation/terrain differences in the temperatures at night along with some extra drying applied to the dewpoints and RH during the afternoons.
.LONG TERM...(Tuesday night through Sunday) Issued at 410 AM EDT MON OCT 13 2025
Once again the main changes to the extended forecast this morning were to enhance the terrain based differences of a ridge to valley split to the temperatures each night through the work week, along with a touch of extra drying each afternoon from the mix down of lower dewpoints aloft. PoPs still appear to be quite limited during the upcoming week but there is increasing confidence in showers and/or storms returning to the area for next weekend along with a potential for heavy rain due to a slow moving cold front dropping into the state.
The previous long term discussion follows:
Ridging prevails through the end of the week, with the exception of a brief period of northwesterly flow aloft allowing for a backdoor cold front to move south and then southwesterly across eastern Kentucky during the day Wednesday. This will bring a cooldown, especially for overnight lows Thursday night, as cold advection diminishes and excellent radiational cooling develops. This will allow for lows in some of our more sheltered valleys to drop into the mid to upper 30s, which will also mean the chance for some patchy frost, particularly in our northeastern counties.
Warm advection increases Friday into the weekend ahead of another potentially stronger disturbance that looks to impact the area next weekend. This system looks to have pretty good jet support, with the operational GFS and ECMWF models depicting different solutions though still roughly in line with the global model ensemble consensus. Possible impacts include strong to severe storms upstream over the Mississippi and/or Lower Ohio Valleys at some point, with more local downstream impacts still to be determined.
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.AVIATION...(For the 12Z TAFS through 12Z Tuesday morning) ISSUED AT 755 AM EDT MON OCT 13 2025
Valley fog is in place and locally dense at 12Z. All fog will dissipate this morning, leaving VFR conditions through late tonight when fog may again become an issue at some of the terminals. Winds will be light and variable through the period.
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.JKL WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None.
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UPDATE...GREIF SHORT TERM...GREIF LONG TERM...CMC/GREIF AVIATION...GREIF
NWS JKL Office Area Forecast Discussion