Good Wednesday, everyone. We have one more pesky shower maker moving across central and eastern Kentucky today, and then it’s full steam ahead toward a much drier pattern. That dry pattern will also be a much colder one as we open the door on 2016.

Today’s showers won’t be very widespread, with the greatest concentration across the east and southeast. This is also where the warmest temps will be noted. Expect another healthy temperature gradient setting up from northwest to southeast.

Colder air continues to push into the region for the final day of the year. The weather will not play a factor in any of those big New Year’s Eve parties as skies will be mostly cloudy with low 30s around.

New Year’s Day may feature a passing flurry or two in the morning with highs in the 30s. Winds are going to gust up over the weekend as another cold front gets set to drop in from the north. That thing may literally drop due south out of the Great Lakes and appears to be packing a nice reinforcing shot of cold for Monday and Tuesday…

GFS 2

The Great Lakes are wide open and warm and we will have to watch to see if a few snow showers or flurries can work into our region. The Canadian seems to think so…

Canadian 2

That also shows a nice shot of cold air…

Canadian

The GFS Ensembles Mean has it, too…

GFS

Temps recover a bit for the middle and end of next week, but there is a growing signal that we will have to watch as we head into week 2 of January. I’ve been showing you how all the Ensembles grow much colder during this time, but we will also have to be on guard for a possible storm ushering in the real deal cold.

Even as I think late January into February are primed to be our big winter weather makers, the second week of the month is not getting my attention.

I will update late today. Make it a good one and take care.