The wind picked up and temperatures responded today. It felt like spring with highs in the neighborhood of 60 degrees. And this is only the beginning. As the wind gets a little gustier, it will draw even warmer air northward. High temperatures will run 20° to 30° above-normal over the next two days. This warmth will also challenge record highs in Lexington.
Even morning temperatures could challenge a record. Friday will begin near 50°. Lexington's record for the warmest low temperature tomorrow is 49° from 1972.
Lexington will be within a few degrees of the record high Friday afternoon. We are expecting a high of 66°. The record is 65° from 2018. Saturday's record is also from 2018. We should easily blow past that record with highs in the lower 70s.
With this type of warmth in January, you know there has to be some active weather brewing. The gush of record warmth will come ahead of a strong low that will track out of the Deep South on Saturday. There will be the potential for strong and severe storms, especially across southern Kentucky. Damaging winds will be the top threat with these storms.
