October Summary

The big weather story this month was the redevelopment and intensification of drought. Though we started the month with no drought, by the third week of the month severe drought (D2 on the Drought Monitor) covered much of central Kentucky, especially from Louisville and Lexington southwestward, including Bowling Green and Hartford. Moderate drought was present across the rest of the area, including southern Indiana. While the dry weather was beneficial in allowing the fall harvest to proceed at a brisk pace, the lack of rain did harm pastureland. Hay reserves were used early for feed, and there was concern about having enough leftover for the remainder of the winter. Some streams ran low, including the Rolling Fork at Boston which fell to a stage of about two feet, just barely above its record low stage. Herrington Lake released so much water, to keep downstream water levels up, that its docks became unusable.

On the 12th one of the month's few cold fronts swept through. It generated scattered thunderstorms east of I-65 and blew down a few trees near Knob Lick in Metcalfe County. On the 25th low pressure traveling from the Ozarks to near Detroit swung a cold front through the region that brought widespread gusty winds over 30 mph.

Unusually cold weather for so early in the season brought four days in a row of scattered frosts and freezes from the 17th to the 21st, officially ending the growing season on the 20th. On the 18th cold air streaming down from Lake Michigan brought scattered flurries and a few instances of lightly accumulating snow. One CoCoRaHS volunteer reported in an inch in western Floyd County (join CoCoRaHS today to help us with rain and snow measuring!).

	Average Temperature	Departure from Normal	Precipitation	Departure from Normal	Snowfall	Departure from Normal
Bowling Green	58.2°	-1.8°	1.21"	-2.42"	0
Frankfort	54.9°	-2.7°	1.08"	-2.56"
Lexington	56.8°	-1.0°	0.96"	-2.70"	T	+T
Louisville Ali	58.8°	-1.5°	1.54"	-2.18"	T	-0.1"
Louisville Bowman	56.7°	-2.1°	1.46"	-2.19"

Records

9th: Low of 30° at Frankfort, low of 31° at Lexington
18th: Cold high of 47° at Frankfort, snowfall of a trace at Lexington, snowfall of a trace at Louisville

Boulder Pond

Sunrise over Boulder Pond in Turkey Run Park, Louisville, on the 6th