By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
The remnants of Hurricane Laura will begin affecting Kentucky today, bringing rain and breezy conditions, with a small possibility of tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service.
While Laura had maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour when it made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana early Thursday morning, Forecaster Joe Sullivan with the NWS Louisville office says it will be merely a tropical depression when it reaches Kentucky.
National Hurricane Center satellite photo of Laura shortly before landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, packing sustained 150 mph winds.
“A tropical depression means sustained wind speeds of 39 miles per hour, but that goes all the way down to zero, so keep that in mind,’ he said. “It does not mean this will be a 39 mile per hour system when it gets through here.”
Sullivan debunked rumors on social media that this would be like Hurricane Ike, which actually sustained winds up to 80 mph for a two-hour period, when it passed through Louisville on September 14, 2008. “We are not, let me emphasize not, expecting on the order of Ike for widespread wind damage.”
With Laura, “We’re not looking at anything more than about 20 miles per hour, except maybe along the Tennessee line south of Bowling Green,” Sullivan stated. “Peak non-thunderstorms are not expected to get higher than 30 miles an hour.”
He noted that within any thunderstorms, there could be gusts higher than that and that the Storm Prediction Center has a slight risk of severe weather on Friday for western and southern Kentucky.
NWS Hydrologist Andrea Schoettmer says most of Kentucky can expect 1-3 inches of rain while Laura crosses the state, which is well below the amount needed for flooding,.
“We do believe the flash flood risk is low, maybe some flood advisories of a flash flood warning from this, but overall we believe the flash flood risk is low because we can take much more rainfall at this time.”
She added, “Our rivers can handle a good three to three-and-a-half inches. If we start to see areas where we get three-and-a-half to four inches in a river basin, then some of those river points may go into minor flooding. To see widespread flooding on the rivers, we would need over four inches in a basin.”
As a precaution, however, far western Kentucky is under a flash flood watch, basically along and west of a line from Madisonville to Hopkinsville.
Sullivan says a cold front dropping down from the north will usher in some cooler conditions for the latter part of the weekend.
