We are in the Top 25 on our significant weather event countdown.

The first event of the Top 25 is the 2nd of 3 events of 2007 that will be on this list. 2007 is the only year to have three events on this list, and #25 was the heat wave and drought that peaked in the Summer. In particular one of the hottest months of all-time, August 2007.

In Bowling Green the month of 8/2007 saw 9 days of 100F or above temperatures and an additional 9 days of 98-99 degree weather, so that equals 18 days of 98+F weather. At Paducah, there were 8 days of 100+F weather in the month of August 2007. At both Bowling Green and Paducah there was not a single day that finished below average.

The second biggest story was drought. Several areas would go 15 to even 30 days without rainfall as the core of the ridging set over the area or just to our south, this was in addition to a drier-than-normal Spring across much of the area. This led to Extreme (D3) or about a 1 in 20 to 1 in 25-year drought. Some communities were under Water Alert watches such as Crritenden and McLean Counties and a wildfire in Muhlenberg County burned several hundred acres, spreading smoke across several counties. Damage was in the millions of dollars to crops, and would have been even more costly if it wasn’t for an event that we will talk about later on our list, that had already destroyed large portions of our agricultural yield for 2007.

^^ Drought monitor for August 28th, 2007 which was pretty much the peak of the drought ^^

Why Was This Event Significant

• It was another blow to farmers and our crops in what was already a costly year in 2007. Drier than normal spring conditions combined with the extreme heat/additional flash drought create millions of more dollars of damage to crops. Water sources were beginning to be stressed in some areas especially right before beneficial rains arrived in the Fall.
• August 2007 was the hottest month on record for Bowling Green, with a mean temperature of 85 degrees (averaging the high and the low temperature) and was the 4th hottest month on record at Paducah with a mean temperature just shy of 84 degrees.