2020 has been on odd year in many aspects with everything going on in the world but one thing that has been fairly “normal” lately is our temperatures through September. Most days this month afternoon highs have been just a few degrees either side of average as we’ve steadily cooled down through the month. Our last 90-degree day here in Louisville was September 10th when it was 91 degrees. In any given year, once we get toward the end of September, we can say goodbye to those 90s! The lack of a summer drought always helps the cause and that’s how things played out in 2020.
However, most people won’t forget how things were 1 year ago at this time when much of Kentucky and Southern Indiana was in the midst of extreme and recording setting heat thanks to a hot and dry summer that carried over into the fall season. August 2019 so 19 of the 30 days reached at least 90 degrees or higher for afternoon highs here in Louisville and more importantly 22 of the 30 days in September 2019 had high temperatures of 90 degrees or greater!
The stage was set for a crazy and record setting finish to September and beginning to October in 2019. We had 7 straight days with highs of 95 degrees or above with a few days flirting with the century mark! It was memorable for that time of year to say the least. This year it’s a polar opposite, literally! Check out this graphic below and it pretty much speaks for itself.
Afternoon highs this year will be a solid 25-35 degrees cooler than the same stretch 1 year ago! Wow is the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, we are looking at below average highs late this week with some locations struggling to get out of the 50s for highs on Friday as a secondary front brings an additional cool shot of air.
It’s just another reason why living and forecasting here in Kentuckiana is never boring relative to our weather. Time to break those sweaters and sweatshirts out later this week!
Meteorologist T.G. Shuck
