Good Saturday, everyone. We have a light snowmaker rolling into the area late today and it’s going to cause some travel issues tonight into early Sunday. Arctic cold wind chills will follow that up as we kick off the month of December.
A Winter Weather Advisory is now out for much of central and eastern Kentucky and it’s oriented nicely with that west/northwest to east/southeast moving band of snow…
The snow develops from west to east early this evening with the heaviest snows showing up late this evening through early Sunday. Some light snow and flurries will linger into the afternoon across central and, especially eastern Kentucky.
Road conditions will be impacted as the recent cold snap has lowered road and ground temps enough to cause some issues. Lots of people will be traveling back home as we hit the end of this long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, so give them a heads up on what to expect.
My New Call for Snowfall has a few changes to tighten things up a bit as we get closer to the event and things come into better focus…
I did add the (Local 3) to the totals in central Kentucky areas around Interstate 64 have a chance to overachieve. This is something showing up on the NAM Fam…
The HRRR is also on the overachievers list…
This run of the GFS has a consistent 1″-2″ snowfall…
So does the EURO, but it’s on the conservative side of all the models…
The RAP is besties with the GFS and that band of 1″-2″ totals…
As this system moves away late Sunday, gusty winds and arctic cold will combine forces to tank our wind chills. Single digit wind chills will be possible by Monday morning.
As this cold northwest flow continues, there’s a small scale disturbance starting to show up on the models late Monday into Monday night. This may drop a sneaky band of light snow and flurries as it drops in from the northwest…
The cold eases a bit by the middle of the week before we track additional blasts of cold coming in from the north and northwest later in the week into next weekend. The models will struggle mightily with the setup ahead, especially the EURO, because we have these systems dropping in from the northwest while a cutoff low spins in the southwestern US.
Which of the systems dropping in from the north can manage to hook up with the energy in the southwest? Will any of them? That remains to be seen, but if they do, a hefty winter storm system would be possible.
The GFS has been showing this from time to time starting next weekend into the following week. The latest run jumped on the system next weekend…
Don’t worry, that will change as the models flip back and forth on which system digs in and fully develops. The pattern from next weekend through the following week can spawn a significant winter event across the eastern half of the country.
I’ll have updates later today so check back. Until then, here are your radars to track the light snow from the west…
Make it a great day and take care.
I’ll take the under on totals.
Thanks Chris. I hope you and everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Clipper systems are a Wintertime signature of ENSO / La Nina. Here in South Central Kentucky, we receive the unwanted Arctic Cold, but not the Snow that comes from the West/ Northwest from fast moving Clipper systems. Well maybe a dusting of Snow. My concern is Freezing Rain, because my area receives this mess when the warm air from the Gulf overrides the Cold Arctic air at the surface. I think this week the Cold air will warm to above freezing at the surface so we are good this time around. You mention that there maybe a hook – up with negative energy from the Northwest with positive energy from the Southwest. That would be a major Snowstorm for all of Kentucky, if the resulting storm tracks to our South. In past La Nina Winters I’ve seen this happen along the East Coast resuting in Nor’ Easters. At lease we would have something real to track. We need ENSO / El Nino (a weak one ) with a positive PDO to have a real fun Snowy Winter, maybe that will happen within 5 years. Don’t know with this new normal we have ?
Enjoy the Weekend Everyone !
Happy Thanksgiving Schroeder
Thanks Crystal. Hope your area receives the accumulating Snow that Chris is predicting.