A beautiful weekend to be outdoors

It appears that we’ve made it through winter.

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80-degree temperatures are trying to work into Kentucky

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While there is still plenty of time to have sub-freezing temperatures, the pattern we found our weather trapped in from Dec. 1 through the latter part of February has broken for good. Snow will now be a rare sight until the end of the year and our average temperatures are on the rise. I don’t know about you, but after that cold and snowy period we just came through, I’m ready for spring.

We have two interesting things to talk about coming up in the next 7-10 days.  The “supermoon” as some are calling it occurs this coming weekend, and our first shot at 80 degrees will arrive shortly thereafter.  It’s going to be a beautiful weekend to stay outdoors.

First a little info about the moon.  On Saturday, March 19 the moon will be the closest to Earth that’s it’s been in many years.  Just as Earth’s path around the sun is not a perfect circle, the moon’s cycle around the Earth is also not a perfect circle.  That causes the moon to sometimes pass closer to the Earth than it does at other times.  This weekend, the moon will be in it’s closest position to us, which is called “lunar perigee."  What makes this especially interesting for us is that the moon will be full on this same occasion and in addition to that, moonrise occurs at 8:11 PM which is almost immediately after sunset.  So if you take everything into consideration, what we’ve got coming up is the makings of one of the most spectacular sights in the sky we’ve seen in years.  It should prove to be a beautiful moonrise Saturday night...an awesome opportunity to see detail on the moon with the naked eye that you normally can’t see.  The moonrise Sunday night may also be awesome, though you’ll have to wait until almost 9:30 PM to see that one.  As of right now, it appears that high pressure will be in control of our weather this weekend and that should keep the sky clear so that we can enjoy this amazing sight.

The other big story is our temperatures.  After seeing weeks and weeks of temperatures that were consistently in the 0 to 30 degree range, we’ve been finally working our way back up the thermometer lately.  This weekend and the first part of next week is going to be really nice and I think that by Monday, we could flirt with the 80 degree mark for the first time this year.  With heat building in the Gulf now, strong high pressure anchored off the east coast, and a powerful storm system forecast to crank up in the midwest, all the necessary ingredients will be in place to make temperatures in Kentucky soar this weekend.  Readings in the 70s will be common, and if we see plenty of sunshine on Monday I think 80 is not out of the question.  I look for the official forecasts coming out to be adjusted upward as we get closer to the weekend.  This happens to also be the first official day of astronomical Spring (meteorological Spring began March 1st).  Thunderstorms will return by Tuesday.

Get out and enjoy the weekend.  It’s going to be a really nice one, both day and night.