Good Sunday afternoon. Winter is pushing back in as we speak and the pattern ahead is likely to lead to a harsh month of January for much of the country. Some warning shots are being thrown our way this week as we track some festive flakes and frigid temps for our Christmas week.
A wave of low pressure will indeed develop along our front as it slips to the east of us. This means another surge of showers across eastern Kentucky this evening and overnight. The back edge of this will be in the form of some light snow and flurries as it works eastward into Monday morning. Temps will be in the 30s tonight and stay there into Monday as winds gust up.
Those winds are ahead of a stronger push of cold air that arrives for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Check out the frigid numbers…
Throw in gusty winds and single digit wind chills are a good bet. What about some snow to go with that cold? I do think some festive flakes are possible as a couple of disturbances wok in from the northwest. The NAM is picking up on these…
I don’t think too many people would complain about arctic cold temps and some flakes flying around Christmas.
Another weak system dives in on Thursday and may be another flake maker. That’s a quick shot of cold that is being pushed to our east by a bigger system coming behind it next weekend…
Check out the air behind that arctic front…
From there… it’s game on for the potential for a very harsh winter pattern to grip much of the country for January. The GFS Ensembles temp anomalies (Celsius) map grows colder by the run for the first week of the year…
Lots of cold air, but perhaps all a lot of us might see in January are festive flakes. I love this term for non-accumulating snow 🙂 Not sure how festive folks would feel though if correct…
Help us, Clipper! Save the day (month) with your fins of snow!
At least while we in Central KY are enjoying our festive flakes we don’t have to watch our friends to the west, north and east enjoy accumulating snow this week.
Misery loves company 🙂 Well, it is sad but true you know. 🙁 …….. 🙂
sounds good to me!
thanks Chris!
Kentucky winter rule states that an influx of very cold air = no chance for measurable snow, only flurries…. The system for “next weekend” will = 33+ degree rain/freezing rain. Sorry for the negativity but this is in fact the dominant pattern, time after time after time. I just don’t feel that that blockbuster snowfall is gonna line up in the stars for us.
You have learned well my son.
Bryant (AKA Blowtorch),
57 average for January looking pretty slim don’t you think?
How dare you attack the great and almighty Bryant!!!!! 😉 🙂 😀
All in fun. 😉
Thanks Chris at least we will have the cold.I couldn’t stand the thoughts of a 70 degree Christmas!
Electric company said it could be tomorrow before we get our power back on..:(
Boo!
if that pattern becomes reality it should put us in a favorable position to record some accumulating snow.
I like the fluffy snow that those systems brings to our area.
I am talking about clipper systems.
Maybe we’ll get a southern stream system to pan out for some snow. Crazier things have happened! lol
Imagine another post about CKY won’t get anything. Lol!
Sorry this is off topic, but I just wanted to say thanks to Jeff for his help last night with the storms and when they might impact my family.My family and I stayed up until 2 am, watching the radars and reading twitter, KWC, etc for updates, but the good news is that they made it through just fine! Thank you so much, Jeff, for taking the time to help me keep them informed! I truly appreciated your help!
Merry Christmas to everyone here at Kentucky Weather Center and especially to Chris, who makes this place possible for each of us!
I ain’t much but I’m wiry. 😉
Just give me one snow day in January!!!! Please!
Just give me one snow day in January!!!! Please!
Looks like we have a big warmup on tap after Christmas. Ironic that we had more snow in November than we will have for this December in Lexington. (1.4″ vs 0.6″)
Where in Chris’s post did you see that it was going to warm up after Christmas? I do believe he said the opposite. Are you dyslexic or what? Geeshhh
See for yourself. 18z gfs shows the freeze line all the way up into northern michigan on sunday December 29th.
http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/Image.php?image=data%2Fgfs%2F18%2Fgfs_namer_150_850_temp_mslp_precip.gif&model=gfs&area=namer&storm=&cycle=18¶m=850_temp_mslp_precip&fhr=150&group=Model+Guidance&imageSize=M&scrollx=0&scrolly=0
The red line is the freezing line Seth. It is all the way down to Central Florida.
Weather channel has most of January to be warmer for entire country.