Why is There a Temperature Difference Across the State?

        So far this week Maysville has been experiencing mild temperatures with highs in the low to mid 70s, while most of Kentucky has seen highs in the 80s. So why is that? The answer to that is actually quite simple, there is a stationary front located across Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio/Indiana. A front is nothing more than a boundary between two different air masses. To the north of the stationary front we see cooler temperatures, while to the south of it we see warmer, and typically more humid conditions (but that isn't the case with this front). I got the picture below from the Kentucky Mesonet yesterday and nerded out because of how clear the front was from the surface observations.
         Two main ways to locate a front are by finding the temperature gradient and the change of wind speed and direction. The top part of the image shows the surface temperatures across the state, while the bottom shows the wind speed and direction. We can see temperatures in the high 70s above the line and temperatures in the low to mid 80s below it. The front is even more recognizable by the change in wind direction and speed. To the south of the front, where there is warm air advection, we see southerly flow while to the north we see northerly flow.

So what does this stationary front mean for our weather over the next few days? For Tuesday we will see the same sunny and mild conditions we saw on Monday. The front will lift north as a warm front Wednesday and temperatures will climb into the mid 80s for Wednesday and Thursday. These warmer temperatures wont last for long as a cold front sweeps through the area this weekend, which means the return of rain and temperatures back down into the 70s.