Good Monday, everyone. We are kicking off another bitterly cold week across Kentucky and surrounding areas as we track two arctic fronts into the region. This is part of the harsh winter weather pattern that kicks back into high gear next week.
Let’s begin with today and roll forward.
As the first arctic front moves in, it brings along some pockets of light snow and flurries, especially to central and eastern Kentucky. Here are your radars to follow anything that actually shows up…
Temps drop pretty much all day long as gusty winds make it feel much colder. Check out the wind chill numbers from the HRRR starting at 7 this morning and going through 11 this evening…
Another system then rolls in for Tuesday and may bring a period of light snow to parts of central and eastern Kentucky. You can see that on the future radar…
Temps behind this are even colder and may drop to zero or below by Wednesday morning.
The pattern from this weekend through next week looks loaded with potential as a MAJOR arctic outbreak enters the country and takes up residence. This will be introduced by a storm system by Friday and Saturday and this may trend colder as we get closer.
The arctic front then pushes just to our east and southeast as waves of low pressure develop and travel along it. This setup can throw additional winter storms into our region and is something we’ve talked about here for a while.
The forecast models will all struggle with how all this shakes out, so you might as well get used to seeing some wild swings. This is where it’s important to forecast the pattern and not simply regurgitate what any one model run shows. Unfortunately, that’s the majority of the weather world nowadays.
The GFS is jumping on too much energy from the northern branch with the initial system…
I think the Canadian has the right idea with energy coming in along the stalled front…
The EURO is also showing wild swings from one run to the next…
Looking longer range toward February, the EURO Weeklies are growing colder the closer we get to the month. The first two weeks look like this…
February should also feature a very active southern branch of the jet stream that leads to above normal precipitation in our region. The EURO Weeklies like this idea…
Some of that will be snow, some rain, and some could even be severe storms.
I’ll have your normal updates later today. Make it a magnificent Monday and take care.
Lame