Issued: 8am on Thursday, August 20th 2026
Technical Forecast Discussion
Key Messages:
- Intermittent chances for showers and thunderstorms into the weekend. With best chances for widespread rain on Thursday and isolated showers on Saturday.
Key Message 1…
Upper-level zonal flow persists keeping our rainy pattern for Thursday as a low pressure system rolls through the area. While there is no official severe risk, there is a chance for isolated high wind gusts in embedded thunderstorms. We also will still have a flash flood risk due to our extremely saturated soils and the chance for locally heavy rainfall associated with this system. As of the time of writing this discussion, the NWS has Athens county under a Flood Watch in effect until 2 pm on Thursday. A trough will dig into the region behind this system, allowing for high pressure to build on Friday bringing dry and sunny weather before isolated showers and thunderstorms return on Saturday as a weak cold front passes through. This will allow for a steadier stretch of dominating high pressure leading to a sunny and warm first half of the first week back hOUme for our Bobcats!
