Good Thursday everyone and thanks for making the center your stop for all things Kentucky weather. The signs are growing for another significant bout of winter weather for the next few weeks for our region. The threat for several snows and the coldest air of the season will be with us during this period.

As far as the “now” weather goes… a few leftover flurries may be with parts of the state early today before a mix of sun and clouds takes over. High temps will generally run in the 30s for most areas.

The action will kick off late Friday into Saturday with a storm gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico. This low will work northeastward into the Carolinas by early Saturday before heading toward New England. There is likely to be a very weak lead low into the eastern Tennessee Valley Friday night. These two will work in tandem to throw moisture our way. Exactly how much moisture and how far west it can get remains to be seen as there is a system diving into the midwest at the same time that can help push this storm along.

This will not be a big storm for our region as it won’t really get its act together until it hits the northeast. That said… it is likely to put down a swath of light accumulating snows Friday night and Saturday morning. Temps will be rather marginal for this event meaning some areas in the east will likely see a mix of rain and snow to start before a switch to snow.

The NAM and GFS both show a 1″-3″ swath of snow setting up… but disagree on where to put it…


We will give the models some more time to slug it out and put out a first call later today. This is certainly nothing we haven’t seen before this winter.

The weekend system is likely to start us off with this latest period of harsh winter weather. A weak system works in for Super Bowl Sunday and may bring a batch of light snow and flurries in here. That will set the stage for a major blast of arctic air into much of next week. An arctic front will dive in here late Monday into early Tuesday and is likely to have a wave of low pressure along it that would produce a round of snow along this deepening low.

That should be the first push of arctic air as a stronger surge would be likely for the middle and end of the week and that should also have accumulating snows with it. For days now… the GFS Ensembles have really been taking a walk on the frigid side for the end of next week. The latest runs are no different…



To see that kind of departures from normal showing up on a smoothed average is very impressive. The operational GFS model has also latched on to the arctic blast for a few days now. Here is what the latest run is showing for temps next week…



That would probably be the extreme option… but this has been a winter of extremes across much of the country.

The overall look to the pattern for the next 10-14 days is one that can get a major phase between the jet streams.

I will have more updates coming later today so check back. Until then… watch TWC’s Jim Cantore freak out during the Chicago blizzard…

Take care.