Good Monday and welcome to a week of big temperature swings. If you’re a fan of mild temps, rain, thunderstorms, cold, arctic cold and snow… then this is the blog update for you. We are going to manage to squeeze all of that into the next 10 days or so of weather here in the bluegrass state.

Things are starting off on a cold note today with upper teens and low 20s to start. Afternoon highs will range from the mid 30s in the north to low 40s in the south under a partly sunny sky.

Tuesday will find readings well into the 40s and nearing 50 in the south and west. Clouds will increase later in the day as a weak boundary drifts in from the north for Wednesday. That front may spawn a shower or two as we await a stronger storm system working in from the southwest on Thursday. That storm is likely to set up a massive north-south temp gradient Thursday afternoon…

GFS 2

That shows upper 30s in the far north with middle 60s in the south. The warmer air will lift northward as the low works across the Mississippi River Valley. That will bring a nice slug of rain into the state and a rumble of thunder will be possible…

GFS

Showers will then continue into early Friday before things try to clear out during the afternoon and evening. That’s when the 60s look to really take over on a gusty southwesterly wind.

It’s during this time we get another storm system to develop across the plains and run toward the Great Lakes by Saturday and Sunday. This storm is being fueled by a massive dip in the jet stream across the western half of the country. That allows very cold air to move into the backside of this system. A strong cold front will work slowly eastward into Kentucky by Saturday night and Sunday. Check out the temp gradient along this front by Sunday afternoon…

GFS 3Temps near freezing across the western part of the state as the east basks in the 60s. This is going to be a very slow moving front as it is running into a strong ridge of high pressure off the southeastern seaboard.

That front will stall out for a few days just to our east along the Appalachian Mountains. Multiple waves of low pressure may ride northeastward along this front and try to set us up for some wild weather to end the weekend with anything from snow and ice to heavy rain a possibility. All of that depends on exactly where that front decides to hang up.

From there… the cold air takes control and pushes the boundary a little farther eastward by Tuesday. We will have to watch for additional systems working along that front and throwing snow our way. Arctic air then gets involved by the middle and end of next week and our temps are likely to really tank.

Snow and cold lovers have got to be giddy with the pattern setting up next week and beyond. This won’t be a setup that gives you only a small window of opportunity to get some big time winter weather. It looks to be rather dominant for the rest of January into February.

I will update things as needed today. Have a wonderful Monday and take care.