The tone was set just 24 hours into the New Year. On January 2nd of 2006, the mercury soared to a record high of 72 degrees just hours before severe weather raked through the region. Powerful thunderstorms rolled across central Kentucky and south central Indiana on that unusually warm and humid early January producing six tornadoes! It was the largest wintertime tornado outbreak on record for the area. Elizabethtown was the hardest hit with F-2 damage a few miles north of downtown along US 31W. Other F-2 tornadoes struck parts of Adair and Lincoln Counties of Kentucky on that day.

Severe storms also struck parts of Kentuckiana on March 9th, April 2nd and 7th, May 25th, July 14th and on August 10th. The May 25th outbreak brought widespread wind damage to much of the Ohio Valley. Winds to 70 mph were reported at Big Clifty in central Kentucky along with two inch diameter hail. A storm produced a gust of 64 mph at the Louisville International Airport.

In addition to several rounds of severe weather, 2006 also brought a few notable flooding events to the area. On January 23rd, one to as much as three inches of rain combined with melting snow to produce flash flooding across much of Southern Indiana and parts of Kentucky. On July 14th, a series of thunderstorms with very heavy rain moved from Floyd and Clark Counties in Indiana and into parts of Jefferson, Shelby, Scott and Woodford Counties in Kentucky. As much as four inches of rain was reported near Sellersburg, IN.

The worst flooding of the year occurred on September 22nd and 23rd. A slow moving storm system brought torrential rainfall for much of southern Indiana and north central Kentucky. The heaviest rain fell along the I-64 corridor where more than 7 inches of the wet stuff was recorded in many areas over the two day period. Louisville picked up 4.28 inches on the 22nd to set a daily rainfall record and was only two one hundredths away from the September record as well. Unfortunately, six people lost their lives in the flood waters produced by the tremendous rainfall. It was the worst flooding in Louisville since March of 1997.

In addition to the abundant rainfall for the year, several record temperatures were set. As already mentioned, Louisville hit 72 degrees on January 2nd, smashing the old record of 66 degrees set all the way back in 1897. On April 15th Louisville reached 86 degrees which broke the previous record of 85 set in 1912. Another record high fell on November 30th with a temp of 74 degrees, shattering the old mark of 70 set in 1991. The final record was broke on December 17th with a high of 70 which eclipsed the old record high for the date set in 1984. No record low temperatures were set during 2006.

The coldest it got during 2006 was 9 degrees above zero on the morning of February 19th. The hottest temperature recorded was 95 degrees set on three different days, August 2nd, 7th and 10th. Overall, Louisville had an average temperature of 58.5 degrees for the year, which is about 1.7 degrees above average and was good for the 4th warmest year on record. Precipitation was more than 12 inches above average with a total of 56.85 inches (good for 7th wettest on record). Nearly all of this fell in liquid form as Louisville only officially picked up five inches of snow at the airport, which is about 10 inches below average.