Severe Weather Alert Day: Heavy rain could lead to high water issues

Wednesday is a WYMT Severe Weather Alert Day. A Flood Watch is in effect for most of Eastern and Southern Kentucky, along with Mingo, and Logan County in West Virginia and Dickenson and Buchanan County, Virginia from tonight into Thursday or Friday morning.

A Flash Flood Watch is in effect for our neighbors in Lee and Wise County, Virginia and Claiborne and Campbell County, Tennessee from 7 p.m. tonight until 1 a.m. Friday.

Today, tonight and tomorrow will feature periods of heavy rain, so keep your rain gear handy at all times.

We're going to go on a rollercoaster ride with temperatures too. After starting Wednesday in the 50s in the morning, we'll drop into the 40s for most of the day and then climb back toward the upper 50s just before midnight. Temperatures will continue to climb through the overnight hours so your Thursday morning "low" will be just after midnight and will actually be warmer than Wednesday's high. Temperatures will head back into the low 60s for Thursday afternoon before crashing to around freezing on Thursday night.

Back to the skies now, we will see breaks in the rain during the day today and tomorrow. The area of most concern for any high water issues is tonight and early Thursday. The Cumberland Valley/I-75 corridor/Lake Cumberland area looks to be in the bullseye for the heaviest rain in Kentucky. Most models are showing an additional 2-3" of rain or more on top of what we have already received, by Friday morning. That's another mess we'll talk about in just a minute.

With soggy conditions and temperatures dropping, mud and rock slides could also be an issue, so keep a close eye out for those during your travels. Ponding water will be an issue everywhere, so slow it down on the roads. Remember, if you come across water over the road, do NOT drive through it! Turn around, don't drown!

The rain will start to transition to snow late Thursday night into Friday morning as those temps get closer to freezing. The Friday morning drive could be rough, so be ready for that. Scattered snow showers will be around most of the day and into the nighttime hours on Friday. Temps look to hover in the mid-30s for most of the day before falling back to around 30 overnight. We could see some light accumulations. Let's get through our rain situation before we throw out any possible totals.

We'll likely start out Saturday with some scattered snow showers, but it looks like temperatures will get close to 40 during the day, so the snow should transition over to rain by the afternoon hours. Most of that moisture should be gone by Saturday night. If it is not, it will head back to snow as temps drop into the mid to upper 20s by Sunday morning.

If you are still reading at this point, you are a trooper and I appreciate you. After maybe a stray snowflake or two early Sunday, skies should clear briefly, giving way to sun and clouds. Highs should get close to 50.

Unfortunately, rain chances return Monday and look to hang around through most of next week. Trust me, I wish I had better news.

Stay weather aware the next few days.