Good Tuesday, everyone. Our blowtorch of a temperature pattern rolls on today as temps take another walk on the May side of the thermometer. All of this warmth over the past week and change is abnormal for this time of year, and things look to try to balance out some over the next few weeks. It’s a very busy setup that may feature a few parting shots from winter.
Let’s start with today and roll forward. Highs will range from the low 70s in the northeast to the low 80s in the southwest. Winds will be very gusty ahead of a cold front moving through. That front may touch off a broken line of storms out there this evening, but the best severe threat may hang just to our north.
Today’s risk area
Temps behind this front slowly drop over the next few days. Highs on Wednesday should still be in the 60s, but winds are going to absolutely crank. 35mph gusts will be possible.
The main push of chilly air arrives behind another front late Thursday. That may touch off some showers and storms as it moves through…
Much colder air slides in for Friday and into the coming weekend. This happens as a big storm system looks to develop in the south and try to run up the east coast. That has a winter look with it and has a chance to bring some rain and snow our way late this weekend. That chance for rain and snow really depends on the track of the storm system. Wait… did I really just utter those words again? Ugh.
Cold shots of air are going to dive into the country over the next few weeks. That’s actually not out of the ordinary for this time of year. It’s a pattern that should feature some pretty wild temperature swings that can give us some big thunderstorms and snowflakes.
Check out the Lexington raw data from the GFS for the next few weeks…
The long red box highlights the precipitation type and shows just how active the pattern may become. The arrows point toward the huge temperature swings that may set up.
That same run of the GFS shows winter really hanging on across the country…
Now, this is just a snapshot of 2 weeks worth of melting snows. I don’t believe it for a second, but it illustrates the point that winter may not go quietly into the night. Many folks tend to lose perspective of the actual time of year and what can sometimes happen. It can, and often, snows in March in Kentucky. It’s not terribly unusual for flakes to fly into early April.
Here’s hoping that’s not the case this year.
I will drop by for another update later. Make it a great day and take care.
For instance on this date in 1993 we were wrapping up from the blizzard that dropped over 3 feet of snow in South East ky. And up to 4″ of snow all the way to the Sandy beaches of mobile,Alabama. I remember it oh so well.. My back yard in barbourville area had almost 3 ft.
I was a pre-teen at the time in Morristown TN. Crazy time, as snow drifts were up to the bottom of window sills in some cases. We virtually never used our old fireplace but it sure came in handy with no power and no heat!
In other news, the SPC will have an update at 4 eastern /3 central. Hopefully today’s severe threat will continue to stay north, but can’t rule out a severe t-storm or even a widely isolated twister in northern KY this evening.
It actually snowed April 4th, 1987..(My wedding day) and snowed in Gatlinburg (2 feet) and the mountains (3 feet)..Worst snow in 90 years! Have the newspaper to prove it!
I was in Pigeon Forge for a soccer tournament and cars were coming out of Gatlinburg with 3 feet of snow on them, I’ll never forget it
Raw GFS data predicts several nights with lows in the low 20s over the next two weeks. That’ll do a good job of killing any plants that have come out of hibernation early. Seeing how my Japanese maple has started to show leaf buds, maybe I should invest in a patio heater…
This time in 93, we got a blizzard. People were in denial even the day that it hit. Thankfully not the case this time. No B word 🙂
Just business as usual. “Old Wives Tales” cold snaps still to come.
Nashville TN hit 87 degrees earlier, still 85! But the winds in Nashville are now fairly gusty which compares to the calm winds we had this morning.
And to think this weekend just might have a few flakes 🙁 .
There is a chance of stronger tornadoes in northern Illinois but the Storm Prediction Center says there’s only a 20% of a watch being issued across southern Illinois near the river with western Kentucky. It will be interesting to see how this system evolves through the night.