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 three weeks of March 2021 were fairly quiet with seasonable temperatures and precipitation. The most notable event was a significant warm-up from the 10th to the 12th with average daily temperatures as much as 20 degrees warmer than normal. One to three inches of rain fell on southern Indiana and north central Kentucky on the 11th-12th as a slow-moving cold front crossed the region.

Things got a little more interesting in the final week of the month. On the 25th a strong low pressure system traveled from the Ozarks to the eastern Great Lakes. Severe storms developed ahead of the low's trailing cold front from the Ohio Valley into the Southeast. Early in the evening a lone storm moved from Nashville almost all the way to Cincinnati, dropping hail along its path through central Kentucky. It also produced some wind damage southeast of Bowling Green. Then later that evening a line of storms moved in from the west and produced three small tornadoes from Ohio County through Grayson County to LaRue County.

On the night of the 27th-28th southern Kentucky was on the northern edge of torrential rains and catastrophic flooding in the Tennessee Valley. Two to four inches of rain fell along the KY/TN border from Tompkinsville to Albany.

	Average Temperature	Departure from Normal	Precipitation	Departure from Normal	Snowfall	Departure from Normal
Bowling Green	52.8°	+4.4°	5.45"	+1.04"	0	-1.1"
Frankfort	49.4°	+4.5°	4.28"	-0.10"
Lexington	48.1°	+3.0°	4.73"	+0.66"	0	-1.4"
Louisville Ali	52.7°	+4.9°	4.76"	+0.59"	0	-1.4"
Louisville Bowman	51.3°	+4.3°	4.30"	+0.14"