Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Mid-South; Heat Continues in the Southeast and Southwest

Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain are expected across portions of the mid-Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley and portions of Arizona. Dangerous heat persists in the South and Southeast while building into the Southwest. Overnight lows will be so warm that, when combined with oppressive dew points, little-to-no relief from the scorching daytime highs will be available. Read More >

The first week of the month was generally dry with seasonable temperatures. Though we have had roughly normal precipitation in 2021 as a whole, by August 10 we had dried out enough to introduce some areas of D0 (abnormally dry) on the U.S. Drought Monitor northeast of Louisville and in the Barren River Lake region.

From the 9th to the 19th we entered a wetter pattern and much of the month's rain fell during this time. Severe weather was sparse this month, but a few thunderstorms did manage to produce some damaging wind gusts during this period.

After another relatively dry period, the month ended on a wet note as the remnants of Hurricane Ida combined with a cold front to bring us thunderstorms on the 30th and rain on the 31st. Fortunately there was very little flooding due to dry ground and plenty of green vegetation. The most significant flooding took place on the 30th, well ahead of Ida, in Dubois, Orange, and Clark counties of southern Indiana. The gymnasium flooded at northeast Dubois Intermediate School.

	Average Temperature	Departure from Normal	Precipitation	Departure from Normal
Bowling Green	80.0°	+1.5°	5.40"	+1.51"
Frankfort	77.6°	+1.5°	8.92"	+5.77"
Lexington	75.6°	-0.1°	7.50"	+3.79"
Louisville Ali	80.9°	+2.0°	3.27"	-0.44"
Louisville Bowman	79.3°	+1.7°	3.86"	+0.33"

Records

11th: Warm low of 81° at Louisville
13th: Warm low of 75° at Bowling Green
19th: Wettest August day on record at Frankfort, 3.97"
29th: Warm low of 72° at Frankfort
31st: Rainfall of 2.11" at Bowling Green, rainfall of 2.21" at Frankfort

Wettest August on record at Frankfort
6th wettest August on record at Lexington

Shepherdsville, KY August 13, 2021