Good Monday, everyone. The week is kicking off with a blast of arctic air invading the bluegrass state. Some of the coldest air in nearly 3 years is pushing in today and the gusty winds will put our wind chill temps into the danger category. We have a few light snow threats early this week with a possible storm by late Thursday and Friday.

Temps today will grow colder as the day wears on as the arctic air seeps in from the northwest. This is an air mass that means business over the next few days. Take a look at the numbers…

NAM 1

That’s a serious blast of cold. Gusty winds are going to make it feel MUCH colder today through Tuesday. Wind chill temps may go below 0 overnight into Tuesday. That’s when you need to limit your time outside.

We’re likely to see a band of light snow or snow showers across parts of the region today. Northern and eastern Kentucky will have the best shot of seeing the flakes.

A clipper will work across the Ohio Valley on Wednesday and this should kick off another round of some light snow.

The system getting the bulk of my attention this week continues to be the one moving our way by late Thursday into Friday. The models continue struggle with how that plays out, but you can definitely see the arctic air showing up much better on the recent runs. Low level arctic air is often the bully on the block and weak to moderate intensity lows have a hard time dislodging it.

The system racing in from the southwest later this week is likely to run into that cold and take the path of least resistance. The GFS Ensembles continue to show this…

GFS 2

The GFS had been showing a low cutting toward the Great Lakes. The last model run decided that wasn’t going to work and now takes the low into southern Ky before giving way to another low to our southeast. The blue line on the maps below show the 32 degree line…GFS

I still think the GFS is too far north with the track of the low, but that solution isn’t impossible. Taken verbatim… Vanilla Ice would be singing around here on Friday. Whatever the storm brings… it may very well unleash the first true upslope snows of the season behind it.

The UKMET shows a stronger system passing to our south and east…UKMET

Btw… those maps show the surface charts on top of the 500mb charts. Just wanted to let you know that’s not showing temps.

I will have another update later today. Have a great Dr. Martin Luther King Day and take care.