Good Thursday, folks. It’s another ugly weather day across the bluegrass state as light rain/mix maker works through here. This is a little system compared to the system working in here for the upcoming weekend. This brings heavy rain, gusty winds, a touch of freezing rain, snow and a taste of arctic air.

Let’s begin with the system we have out there today. It’s a light one, but will produce some decent rains for many. Areas in the north and northeast will have just enough cold air for some light snow or a mix this morning. I will have your tracking tools in a bit.

Let’s talk about the big weekend storm system. This winter storm will be a monster that impacts a large chunk of real estate across the country. For Kentucky, it’s going to bring all modes of precipitation to the state. I continue to maintain we are dealing with two lows. One weak low that rides into Kentucky on Saturday, with another low developing south and east of us late Saturday into Saturday night.

In that scenario, heavy rain on Saturday may lead to some flooding issues developing. Arctic air then crashes in from the northwest Saturday evening and night, with rain going over to a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow then all snow. A band of snow would carry us into early Sunday with snow showers and a few squalls after that.

The European Model has been the absolute most consistent model, showing a very similar scenario with each run from the past few days…

The model snowfall map continues to be on the high side compared to all other models, but it has been slowly sinking south…

Again, that’s only a model run, so don’t get too terribly attached to it just yet. Let’s see it can get a few friends to agree with it before we totally jump in feet first… Or head first. 🙂

The European is also consistent on the amount of arctic air sweeping in here. Since the model has a snow pack across the state, it gets a little crazy with the Sunday night lows…

Again, lows like that would ONLY happen with a snow pack and clear skies. Let’s wait and see on that, but the rest of that cold is about right.

The closest model to the European is the new version of the GFS. This model is just beginning to see the second low idea, but it’s slower getting there…

With a slower evolution to the second low, it’s more disjointed with the snow forecast, but does show a healthy swath possible…

That brings us to the GFS. This poor model has the least amount of precipitation of any model and is the fastest of any model, by far…

Watch for that model to slow things down with future runs. That means your app forecasts will have some big swings on them since many are based off the GFS.

Some thoughts:

  • Heavy rain on Saturday may easily cause some, at least, local high water issues. You can’t put a few inches of rain down that fast without some issues, especially with our soggy ground.
  • The temp crash is going to cause a lot of issues. A flash freeze is likely Saturday night and that may turn things awfully icy as all that water from earlier freezes up.
  • A brief period of light freezing rain should show up in the transition from rain to snow.
  • The snow is still the biggest challenge of the forecast. A setup like this is usually good for accumulating snow. How fast we can change it over to snow will determine how much falls where you live.
  • I know many of you read this whole blog and only see one word… Snow. No other words exist. Some will totally skip over the heavy rain, flash freeze or arctic cold and only see snow. I say this with love, btw. 🙂
  • If you’re a fan of wild weather, this weekend is pretty awesome. Temps may hit 60 in some areas on Saturday with single digits showing up less than 24 hours later.

As we get beyond this storm, this harsh winter pattern is just kicking in. Another arctic front shows up by the middle of next week with additional systems and bitterly cold air slamming in…

As I’ve been pointing out for a while now (along with several other reputable weather sources), temps can totally get out of control during all this time…

I will have updates later today, so check back. Until then, let’s track the early morning rain and northern mix…

Florence

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Covington

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Make it a good one and take care.