Good Saturday, everyone. Our New Year’s Weekend is off and running with colder and drier air pressing into the region. This air is between monster storm systems, with the next one due up on the final day of the year. This is going to bring more heavy rain and high winds our way.

This is another in a long line of big time storms to impact our region this year, so it’s appropriate for Mother Nature to throw one more at us as we close it out. It’s almost as if she’s just trolling us now. 🙂

Here’s a breakdown of how this may play out:

  • Heavy rainfall of 1″-3″ may show up in many areas, especially western and central parts of the state. That would be enough to cause local high water issues, at least.
  • Winds are going to be a major player once again. Those gusts may reach 50mph-60mph at times. Given the wet ground,  uprooted trees may become an issue.
  • We will need to be on guar for a few strong to severe storms by Monday afternoon. Dewpoints surge into the 60s with increased instability just ahead of the low and front. That could help spawn some pretty big thunderstorms.

Let’s start with the heavy rain part of the storm. A general 1″-3″ show up, especially central and western parts of the state…

Flash flooding and general flooding issues may develop and that includes along some of the rivers.

High winds are also a major player and may cause damage across the bluegrass state. Gusts of 50mph -60mph will be possible in many areas. The European has gusts between 60 and 70mph…

Those gusts would easily cause damage across our region.

I can’t even rule out a few strong or severe thunderstorms going up during the afternoon and early evening.

Colder air crashes in for New Year’s Day, but the active pattern isn’t going anywhere. As expected, that next storm system continues to correct west on the models and is likely to impact our weather by Thursday and Friday. In what form depends on the track of the low and the upper low spinning in behind it.

The Canadian Model keeps creeping west and is getting stronger…

The GFS is the GFS and has this storm way far to the south and east with zero impact in Kentucky. The new version of the GFS does get the southern and eastern parts of the state…

The ICON and European Models are much stronger and much farther west, bringing heavy rain and snow to the state.

ICON

The European is the farthest west of the bunch…

I’ll have my usual updates later today, so check back. Make it a good one and take care.