Good afternoon, folks. It’s full steam ahead toward a full-blown winter pattern developing next week, with the potential for this pattern to get downright nasty in the coming weeks. It’s been a well telegraphed pattern, that gets stronger looking as we get closer.
I’m not going to rehash all my thoughts from the past few weeks in how this pattern comes about. Feel free to go back and read all the prior posts dealing with the evolution. 🙂
It looks like we start the change on Monday with showers and storms increasing ahead of a potent cold front. Temps ahead of this front will likely surge well into the 60s on a very gusty southwesterly wind.
The question then becomes, do we get a wave of low pressure to develop along the front? The pattern argues for that and recent runs of the Canadian and GFS models have shown this. If we get that wave to develop, it could give us our first snow chance by Tuesday night into early Wednesday.
Here’s the Canadian…
6z GFS
Snow or not behind that front, the cold air crashes in with a 40 degree temp drop looking likely.
The European Model has been all over a system diving in from the northwest by later Thursday and Friday. The GFS is also showing this…
That could be a snow maker across the Ohio Valley, if it is indeed a real feature. Temps during this time will continue to drop as arctic air pours in.
The GFS wind chill map late next week…
If we continue to look at just the upper levels, we find a pattern that’s reminiscent of some of the great winters of the past. High latitude blocking forces all the arctic cold from the North Pole and Canada, deep into the United States. Watch how this pattern keeps repeating itself over the next 2 weeks…
I told you last night you would start hearing the term Polar Vortex. Right on cue.. I see it all over twitter this morning. 😉
I will have another update this evening and on WKYT starting at 4pm. Enjoy the rest of your day and take care.
Thanks Chris!
12z GFS says you want snow??? Well here ya go
i dont.
Exciting things happening for us old snow watchers!! Thanks CB!
not for me its not exciting.ya all dont live in the mountains down there like i do here.
Move or get a 4wd drive. When you live in the mountains it’s pretty much a given you get snow. Here’s a news flash for ya if you don’t like the snow or the cold don’t live in the mountains.
A lot of times, Central and Northern KY get more than SE KY, except for maybe the top of Black and Pine Mt! What is there to complain about unless the roads are bad for days on end which rarely happens.
boy just when my social life is really taking off this has to happen.chris man i know you dont control the weather and i know its not your fault but isnt there a way you can hold this off?this could affect my social life man.bummer.
Is this guy for real???
No.
I live in the mountains and I’m loving it!!! Thank you Chris for showing us maps and keeping us up to date.
It would be wild if this hit in early Dec, and it stayed cold and snowy through the end of Feb. I think it was the 1917/18 winter that I was reading about where Dec was HORRIBLE, then there was a brief break at the end of Dec, then the bottom dropped out again in Jan, so essentially, most of Dec and Jan were rough and I think it slacked off somewhat in Feb – if I’m remembering what I read correctly. I don’t think any winter (even the 70s winters) were cold and snowy the entire winters. It only takes about 2 weeks of bitter cold and snow before people start getting major cabin fever and getting sick of it.
I do think those 70s winters had some times when the cold slacked off, but cold and snow came multiple times throughout the entire winter so it felt like it was endless. In this case, if we have a “December to Remember” it could color our whole perception of the winter at large, even if Jan and Feb turn out to be mild with little snow.
Looks like freezing rain with most all of these December storms.At least for Kentucky.
At least we got lots of nice weather in between. Today makes 11 days in a row of beautiful dry weather here in southeast ky.
Amen to that. It has been VERY nice and I’ll hate to see it go but I’ll take a snow chance and some frigid temps as long as the nice dry days return soon.
I hope these models/forecasts actually pan out. But somebody needs to points the Huntington area mets in the direction of these models. Maybe they are waiting till the last minute to get on board.