Good Sunday, friends and neighbors. It’s a mild day taking shape across the Commonwealth of Kentucky, but a few showers may put a damper on things. While the overall pattern is skewed milder than normal, Old Man Winter tries to throw a couple of jabs at us over the next week or so.
Let’s begin with today and roll forward. Highs are deep into the 50s with a 60 showing up for areas that get in on a touch of sun. Scattered showers will also be noted, but this isn’t a washout of a day…
Rains will increase from west to east on Monday, as a strong cold front moves in. Winds will be very gusty with some locally heavy downpours…
Northwesterly winds behind the front usher in colder air Monday night into Tuesday. That same northwest flow should also touch off a few snow showers and flurries…
Temps will rebound quickly later in the week, but that’s ahead of another storm system rumbling our way by the weekend. This is a system that continues to have more and more of a winter look to it.
Watch this deepening trough dig across the region…
Heavy rain and thunder may give way to snow with that type of a setup…
That’s an interesting look and one I will focus more on later today.
Have a good one and take care.
Thanks, Chris!
I was too young in 1985 to have any memories, but brutal cold gripped much of the eastern USA in January 1985. On today’s date, both Knoxville and Nashville set their all time record lows of minus 24 and minus 17 respectively. Other lows were impressive daily records such as Lexington minus 18, Chattanooga minus 10, Atlanta minus 8. Orlando plunged to 19 degrees; not only were Florida crops destroyed, even the farmers’ citrus trees were ruined as they were literally exploding during the night as the water inside the trees froze producing a sound not too unlike gunshots.
I remember 1985 very well. That was the year I lost tons of nursery stock.
Apple?
Azaleas, Apples, Peaches, holly, etc.
I remember that day very well. The minus 18 temperature in Lexington actually happened during the middle of the day instead of at night. I was working on a horse farm and spent the whole day trying to keep horses as warm as possible, including a couple of newborn foals, and providing a drink of fresh water every couple of hours as the water buckets would freeze over in a matter of minutes.
Thanks Mark for this info. That cold snap must have been something, because that temp recorded at Knoxville is even lower than the all-time low in Cleveland and Columbus, OH. Maybe there was more snow in Knoxville than OH at that time?
Knoxville being in a relatively deep valley may have been another key.
Cynthiana KY has dropped to 34 below (along the Licking River valley) and Mountain City TN to 32 below (also in a valley).
Mike just mentioned the Madison County KY mesonet site in 2015. Seems I recall that mesonet is at the bottom of a valley which apparently pools the cold air in.
Good point. Makes sense, I watched a documentary about life in the coldest town on Earth (Oymyakon in Siberia), where they showed that because of its location in a valley it would routinely be colder there than in the surrounding areas. The host of the documentary walked up a nearby hill with a thermometer and showed it was noticeably warmer at the top.
In February of 2015 the mesonet site in Madison COunty, not far from where I live, reported a -31.8! Now that’s cold! And that wasn’t just weird reading – four other counties reported temps lower than -25 that same month! Coldest weather I have ever personally experienced.
Thanks Chris, sounds like my kind of weather changeable.
Thanks Chris. Hoping the locally heavy downpours are not all centered over us Seems like we can always count on those not to miss! Have a great Sunday everyone.
This will make you smile CB. One of the snowiest places I follow in New York is one called Highmarket. Between January 13 and January 14, the temperature reached a high of 53 and a low of 2 on the 13th, already a 51 degree drop in 24 hours. But, it didn’t stop there. The temperature continued to fall throughout the 14th, dropping all the way to -26 by the end of the day at midnight for a combined 79 degree swing between those 2 days.
Other places either had record highs on the 13th or were well above average, like well into the 50’s and near 60, and then by the end of that day had nearly a foot of snow on the ground.
Next weekend looks a bit like last weekend and that set up put five inches of fluff in Rodger’s backyard. Looks like another fun week of tracking. Rodger in Dodger
Alright, that’s what I want to here.
Yes it is Rodger in Dodger
Thank you for your clear, precise, intelligent writing on the weather. I feel you could probably write about anything and it would be a good read.
Thanks CB for the updates. All the snow has melted, and I’m ready to track more! ☃️
Now that I’ve had my 1.5″ of snow, I’m disinterested in the thought of more and even more disinterested in the usual “next week” misses. I’d much rather Chris’ prediction of 2nd half winter warm up come true.
That will likely be a bust as blocking is already trying to reestablish….Chris already stated his forecast for a warm second half of winter will probably not pan out, so we will likely be set for wild model madness again in a few weeks for sure!
Very likely