Rain May Fall on Derby Saturday

At the moment, it looks as though the skies will clear over Churchill
Downs by late afternoon Saturday in time for the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby. Rain has scattered over Louisville this week, affecting pre-race races and horse workouts. The Associated Press photo above shows fans watching morning workouts today while hiding under umbrellas. The National Weather Service is forecasting a high of 80 degrees and a 50 percent chance of rain Saturday morning and a 30 percent chance in the afternoon.


"That may change by the time we get to Saturday but as it looks right now, there's a good chance we'll have a wet track," Don Kirkpatrick of the NWS said to The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

The Courier-Journal’s Web site has a great weather page that allows Derby fans to keep continuous check on the weather with updated forecasts and radar images. Ahhh, gotta love those radar images.

And if you’re interested in the weather history of the Derby – and who wouldn’t be interested, right? – the newspaper’s Web site also offers a year-by-year account of rain, high and low temperatures and so forth though the previous 132 races. To get ya started, I’ll tell ya that the wettest Derby day was in 1918 when 2.31 inches of rain fell on the track. Oh, mudder.

Weather Term of the Day:
METEOROLOGY/METEOROLOGIST -- The science and study of the atmosphere and atmospheric phenomena. Various areas of meteorology include agricultural, applied, astrometerology, aviation, dynamic, hydrometeorology, operational, and synoptic, to name a few. A scientist who studies the atmosphere and atmospheric phenomena.
Related term: Dave's Dictionary