Good Friday, folks. Our developing winter storm is inching closer to the bluegrass state and will throw waves of precipitation at us over the weekend. The first arrives in the west later this afternoon then develops across the rest of the state tonight, This delivers mainly snow, with the additional waves showing more of a split personality later Saturday and Sunday.

Let’s begin with the latest Winter Weather Alerts…

That map should really fill in early today in preparation for the first round of snow working in here from the west. I mentioned a few days ago how this could become an overachiever right out of the gate and that’s certainly a real possibility, especially for areas of central and western parts of the state. Here’s my latest call for snowfall through Saturday morning ONLY…

Will that be perfect? Nope, but it’s a rough estimate of how this may play out.  Again, those lines may go a bit north or south depending on how the day plays out. I will offer up two more snowfall forecasts before the evening, if needed.

A quick check on what the models are showing through around noon on Saturday, finds some impressive numbers.

Here’s the Hi Res NAM

The NAM

Short range Canadian

Canadian

European

GFS

For the rest of the weekend, my thoughts remain pretty much unchanged. The best chance for snow is across the northern parts of the state, with rain across the southern half and a buffer zone in the middle. That’s the zone that could go either way from Saturday afternoon through early Sunday…

A degree or so will make a big difference in where the rain vs. snow line sets up. That may be a game time decision. I will try to focus more on that round at some point today, but the initial round is getting most of my attention out of the gate.

I will have another update by noon or so. Make it a good one and take care.