Good Friday everyone. It looks like a lot of those snow dances paid off as dozens of school systems are shut down across the state today. Boogie down, my friends. Thursday was an amazing weather day around here as we had a little bit of everything. I had never used the phrase “squall line of thunderstorms along the arctic front” until Thursday afternoon and I suspect I may never use it again. That line of storms was quickly replaced by snow squalls and crashing temps. That equates to weather awesome-ness for your friendly weatherdude. 🙂
Today will feature cold temps, gusty winds and scattered snow showers and squalls. The best chance for some additional accumulation will be across the north and east. Slick travel is likely for many areas… especially early in the day. High temps will hang in the low and mid 20s for central and eastern Kentucky and near 30 in the west. A biting wind will make it feel much colder than that. Don’t forget to click on the tabs at the top of the page for all your weather tracking needs.
A few more snow showers and flurries try to build back into the north and east overnight as lows dip back into the teens.
I continue to watch a fast moving clipper working our way from the northwest late Saturday into early Sunday. This system is likely to produce a swath of accumulating light snow along and just to the north of the track. The latest run of the NAM shows central and eastern Kentucky to be in a favored region…
That would work out to an inch or two of snow for some areas and that’s something I will fine tune later today. Temps this weekend will run in the upper 20s to low 30s for highs with lows in the upper teens and low 20s.
Monday will find temps moderating ahead of another surge of arctic air into the plains states. This will cause low pressure to develop in the Mississippi River Valley and head toward the Great Lakes. This will drag a strong cold front our way Tuesday with another rain to snow situation possible. I’m not overly impressed with the snow part of this, but that is some impressive low level arctic air seeping southward…
I will talk more about our weekend clipper with an update later today. Have a great Friday and take care.
dont know if anyone read my post in the other thread, but on the way in during all that traffic mess, we saw lightning twice during the snowstorm. once it was in pulaski co i think, and once in laurel on the daniel boone parkway (correction, hal rogers parkway :-/ ) i will ask my wife tomorrow to see if she remembers where we saw it at. it was weird, and i hadnt saw any lightning during a snowstorm in about 12 or 13 years. it was just one flash each time.
thanks chris for the update, and everything you do here for the blog.
Great call on this awesome TRACE of snow in louisville. LO blank L same ole balogna nothing but a arctic front blowing through bringing USA little cold, what a crate of crap.
Great job with the forecast, Chris! Thanks for all the reports and updates. Hope you can get some sleep today.
Very windy and cold, 19 with around 1.5″ of snow in my back yard,
Nice dusting here in Bowling Green! Roads in my city neighborhood look pretty slick! Hope everyone travels safely today!
No more good snow in the forecast for the BG area, I don’t guess? I always like to be looking forward to something 🙂
And thanks for all you do, Chris!
hey Chris you havent really said too much lately regarding the long-term pattern; no doubt because of the last storm; just wondering what your thoughts are for the rest of the Season; appears modeling indicates that another warm up is on tap through the end of the month.
Good question!
yes, The rest of Janurary will be a return to a mild pattern. The long range ECMWF model does show a colder pattern for FEB. This corresponds with another 10 mb warming period over the pole regions in a similar position to the one a few weeks ago that is affecting our weather this week. The 1971-72 analog was a second year la-nina that had a warmer DEC/JAN before turning colder in FEB. These are signs we may see a change however the long range modeling is suspect past week 2.
1971-1972 was not really a big snow season from Middle TN, I think we got like 2″; the last run of the GFS looks suspect, looks like a good cold shot but then suddenly the southeast high strengthens, which is odd in that La Nina is weakening
North Madison did not get an inch, so MAYBE we have one total inch, so far this winter. The wind is the issue, so more bark than bite.
Anybody know if this is the lowest accumulation on record? I do believe for this point it is (at least for central KY).
I could be wrong. But the winter of 97/98 did not have ANY snow until Early Feb when we had that huge storm that lasted for days…We went from NO winter to a memorable winter.
You might be right there (I do not know), but I was wrong about being close to an inch. Looks like north Madison and southern Fayette got half an inch, so still less than an in for the winter.
Looks like BM was right after all (I hate that).
Bubba –
The reason I say that is if you look at the seasonal total for the winter of 97/98, it’s all from that ONE storm. 20 inches. That and the fact that I remember thinking (up until that storm) that we were not going to have any snow at all that winter. It was a shock.
I was driving to Danville back then and also do not remember anything until then, but do recall Fearless Frank saying “Just a dusting, just a dusting”, the morning of the day we got smacked.
Tolja so….tolja so
tolja tolja tolja so!
Don’t you just love it when someone says “I TOLD YA SO”!
: D
Reports coming in from the LEX area (via NWS and CoCoRaHS) are showing from a Trace to maybe 0.5″ of snowfall as of this morning.
Shh… don’t tell “The Voice of Reason”. His ego might turn into a balloon. lol.
On my way in this morning, the snow wasn’t my problem. The ice wasn’t my problem. My problem was all the *^%# road salt that I had to constantly fight to keep off my windshield so I could see where I was going. Ugh…
Looks like the vast majority of snow was with the front, since was about the total before dark. Not taking anything away for tme danger, since these little sole skimmers are dangerous for driving.
So I guess yesterday, when all of us were talking about the radar not looking “promising” were correct. The “nose” of the jet (whatever that means), didn’t enhance precipitation at all (at least here).
At least some got more than a dusting which is better than nothing.
So BM was right. CB usually comes out tops, but looks like BM was closer to correct this time.
Both did a good job, none the less.
Then again, Friday is still early, so CB still has a chance 🙂
BM got it right for me here in London, with just over a trace.
Good wintery morning! Here in SE Fayette, got about half inch on driveway and about an inch on deck where it didn’t melt as much. Neighborhood street slick, but other roads in good shape.
Morning, all. We got about 1.5 in the backyard. But with the blowing and drifting, there are spots that look deeper. I do know that the roads are very slick, and our road by the subdivision is a skating rink, and with some folks who dont know not to stop on small hills in weather like this, made it quite intereswting this morning. Have a GREAT Friday, and be safe, everyone! Thanks, Chris, for all you do!
At least you breached the 1″ mark for winter, some of us are not quite there yet 😉
Downtown Richmond maybe only got a half an inch, and to say that is a stretch. Hoping the weekend clipper brings some more snow, otherwise it sounds like I’m going to have to vacation in Alaska if I want to see snow this Winter.
Well, I couldn’t measure here in Anderson county given that it was all wind blown, but I do think we had between 1 and 2 inches of snow last night. Had a very good 1 or 2 hour period of very heavy snow.
On the way home from work yesterday I saw two lightning streaks come down at the same time! Its been a long time since I saw lightning with sleet. We have maybe a bit more than an inch here at East Point next to the Floyd/Johnson line on Rt 1750. The side roads are slick, but I’m sure the main roads are clear.
we saw lightning with snow also yesterday in pulaski and laurel co . was cool to see, been a long time since ive aw that, probably early 2000s
2 inches at the bottom of Craig Hill outside of Frenchburg (Menifee co)
Looks like this little blast of winter will be out of here as quickly as it came! Lexington now has .1″ of snow officially for the season. If this keeps up, this winter will easily be a top 3 least snowy one ever around here! 🙁
Why do the other mets even bother? Chris hits another one out of the park.
We ended up with .75 in of snow here in Shelbyville which brings us to about and inch for this winter.
Lou. Area (metro) 1/8 inch on deck. Hey better than just a dusting. We might break totals for no snow this year as well
SDF..Reported one inch of snow with all other Lou. areas receiving a trace. A heavy band of snow set up just over the Airport between midnight and 1AM. This band which lasted about 30 mins. was putting down 2″ an hour snowfall rate.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=lmk&storyid=77624&source=0
WISH that would happen over entire state for a few hours….
I have a covered yard near Iroquois Park About 1.5 inches from the 1am snowfall. It’s blowing around now.
We have about 1 1/2 inches of snow in Menifee county. Side roads are snow covered. We have flurries falling right now. Thanks Chris for all of your hard work!
Curent NAM shows snow moving down right over Metro Lou for Saturday night. GFS shows nothing…
AFTER THAT: Warm up with Rain / COLD / WARM W/Rain / COLD / WARM W/Rain / COLD
Looks like we are starting off 2012 as we ended 2011. If this holds true for the year we will be breaking records for rainfall again.
Everyone keeps talking about the lack of snow. Well it is not the snow that is lacking it is the cold air that is lacking. We have had our share of precip. Just not cold enough for snow.
Let us see if February can bring us the big one because it isn’t going to happen in January. THINK SNOW!!!!
I will continue my snow dancing!
2″ – 3″ of snow in London. Last night, we were in a slender training snow band for several hours. Intermittent snow showers this morning with an additional dusting per shower.
Thats what happenend in my backyard last week, when I got 3″ …I didnt quit fair that well this time around with just over 1″..still getting light snow/flurries flying around at noon.
You must be in a sweet spot in London. Here, close to Keavy, we got less than 1/2 inch and I’ve talked to others in different areas in Laurel county and they’ve all got less than an inch.
On E-80 we got 1 to 2 inches with the winds blowing like they did. Some spots deeper than others.
1993 winter was snow less untill late Feb, I remember this well because my daughter was born in Feb. that year. We had several storm’s & the Mega storm that shut down the east half of KY in mid march. SEC tournament was going on in Lexington & stranded thousands.
Hmmmm. That was the superstorm..1993, but I think Lex only got six inches out of that storm because it was too far west, but the 92/93 season for Lex was over 20 inches, so they had to have more snows other than the march 93 one.
About a half inch here in Mercer Co. Some flurries flying. Back roads not too bad, just some patchy spots.
2 inches here in southern Rowan County with snow still coming Down
Yesterday when I left Williamsburg at 2:45pm it was 52 degrees, at 3:30pm when I got to Barbourville the temp had dropped to 49 degrees. Not much of a drop but at 3:50pm the wind started picking up and so did the rain. I watched the temperature drop from 49 degrees to 35 degrees in a matter of 20 minutes !!!! So in an hour and twenty five minutes the temperature dropped 17 degrees, and pretty much did all at once.. Absolutely fascinating !!!!!
I worked outside at the airport in that heavy snow band (actually 2 bands within 20 minutes) and was amazed at not only the snowfall rate but the winds that created near white out conditions. Although it was a powdery snow, once it got packed down, it was slick.
Additional snow showers in London have covered up much of early morning sled tracks in the yard. Is this snow strictly upsloping or lake enhanced from Lake Michigan?
Another snow band is moving through Shelbyville right now. It’s coming down at a pretty good clip.
The last two runs of the op. GFS model have ICE STORM written all over them. This would primarily be a Friday-Saturday system (next week obviously).
Interesteing!!! Very Interesting!!!!….
Or will we just be on the fence between cold rain and snow??? Most mets seem ti have it warming at the end of the month,but the patter should stay active.
and….We are due…
Yeah, obviously being 6-7 days out there is a lot of time for the details to change and you have to get perfect conditions to create an ice storm. I’m just pointing it out on the blog today because winter is not over with by a long shot.
Were due for a bad ice storm every 2 years. Why cant we be due for a big snow storm every 2 years? lol
My deck had 2+ inches on it last night. The deck faces due east so the wind was not blowing it around once it hit. I don’t know how much of an inflated total I may have gotten but I think 2 inches was close for southern Woodford county.
Also I don’t get emails anymore when Chris puts out a new update. Is anyone else having this issue and is it something Chris is working on?
i get emails everytime
forgot to add a tweet as well
According to a snow depth modeling map, most of KY has at least a trace of snowfall. Campbell county (south of Cincinnati) looks like the donut winner this time unless someone knows of any amounts there.
I’m in Campbell county now and we have about an inch on the ground.
Perhaps 1/4 inch in Richmond. Must be the snow desert of KY. In seven years we have probably had 20 inches total with never more than 5 at any one time and never more than 10 in any one year.