The remnants Francine will lift northward into the Mississippi Valley, reaching northeast AR & West TN by dawn on Friday. Ridging across the Upper Ohio Valley strengthens into a center of high pressure over the Great Lakes by Friday as well. One of Francine`s main outer band appears to lift into eastern Kentucky tonight. This first band may be our best chance of realizing some type of measurable rainfall across the area through the short term. However, downsloping will eat away at much, if not most of the moisture downwind of the spine of the Appalachians, especially over eastern and southeastern portions of our forecast area. It is likely that locations east of a Jenkins to Paintsville line will receive little if any rainfall through Friday. The probability of measurable rain increases as one moves further west. Areas west of Highway 15 and east of the I-75 corridor have a 60-80% chance of seeing 0.01 inches, and a 30-50% chance of getting up to 0.10 inches. Further west, locations along and west of the I-75 corridor have a 30-60% chance of seeing up to 0.5 inches of rainfall through Friday, and an 80% chance or higher of measuring at least 0.10 inches. Thus on average, rainfall totals will be meager at best, with a sharp gradient in rainfall totals as one moves from west to east.
