Good Monday, everyone. It’s hard to believe we are one week away from Christmas. As we get closer to the big day, the complicated weather pattern should start to become much more clear. As of now, it’s still loaded with a ton of potential and a ton of question marks.

In the run up to Christmas weekend, the pattern is very active. We have lots of clouds out there today, with a scattering of showers a good bet. Temps will be a little higher than what we had on Sunday, but not by much.

Tuesday’s weather may look and feel a lot like what we have out there today. Gloomy is the word of the week, apparently.

Our possible Wednesday rain maker comes from an increasingly strong southern system. It’s a system the models really didn’t start picking up on fully until the past few days. We have been seeing a split with some models bringing good rains into Kentucky, with others keeping the rains to our south.

The new NAM continues to show southern Kentucky getting in on the rain…

The GFS has now given in and joined the party…

There’s the chance we could see a touch of sleet with that setup on Wednesday, especially on the northern edge of the rain.

This brings us to the pattern for Christmas weekend, and it’s one that’s quite potent and energetic. Bitterly cold air will dive into the country, with some semblance of a southeast ridge trying to fight it. This duel is giving the computer forecast models fits, but these fits should be ironed out over the next few days.

The new GFS takes a potent low into the Great Lakes on Friday, dragging a cold front into Kentucky. As this happens, a wave of low pressure develops along the front, bringing rain then snow in here through Saturday morning…

The cold is much deeper and faster on that particular run, with a switch to snow…

Is this the beginning of the models finally grasping the amount of cold coming into the country? Maybe, but you’re still gonna see some wild swings on the models.

As the cold is deeper and stronger, the GFS then tries to figure out how to handle the energy along the stalled front to our south and east for Christmas Eve and Day…

The bias of the GFS is to be too far south and east with such systems. The European Model can sometimes have too much of a west bias in similar situations.

The new version of the European is for a major overrunning event in our region, starting Sunday and going through the middle of next week…

The low-level cold is already pressing on that run, leading to rain and wintry weather. Here’s the snow map from that particular run…

The ice map…

All I can say is we continue to have the potential for all forms of precipitation this weekend into early Christmas week. It’s still too early to tell which type and at which time, but the potential is certainly real.

This map is now one week old, and I haven’t had to make a single change to it..

I’ll try to get more specific with my updates later today.

By the way, after whatever system we get on Christmas, we are likely to track another system just a few days later. The setup through the New Year is absolutely frigid for much of the country. The GFS Ensembles…

Check back for updates. Make it a wonderful Monday and take care.