Good Wednesday, everyone. It’s a windy and mild day across Kentucky as we get ready to deal with a potent storm system rolling in for the closing days of January. This brings in heavy rains and gusty winds and kicks off a super active pattern that looks to roll through February.

Here’s a breakdown of the system ahead of us:

  • Low pressure rolls from Texas to Missouri Thursday and Thursday night. By Friday, this system then turns almost due eastward and zips through our region.
  • Heavy rain moves into western Kentucky early Thursday then overspreads the state during the afternoon and evening.
  • Gusty winds increase Thursday evening and take us into Friday with gusts topping 40mph at times.
  • Widespread showers and thunderstorms push across Kentucky on Friday with lingering showers Friday night.
  • Rainfall of 1″-2″ will be likely during this time with locally higher amounts possible.

The forecast models are all consistent in showing a healthy rainfall across our part of the world…

 

 

 

I’m not sure what happened to the NAM, but it’s by far and away the worst computer model out there right now. It consistently overdoes the warm air advection and shows everything way too warm and too far north. That was the case for the big snow and ice storm we had and I suspect that’s what led to some Lexington forecasts for mostly rain. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, that happened with one of the local tv stations.

Look how far north it has the rain shield compared to the other models…

What’s a few hundred miles among friends?

This busy setup really starts cranking later next week with the models still all over the place with storm tracks…

The longer range pattern will turn colder late in week one and, especially, into week two of the month. The GFS Extended is seeing the snow chances…

The Euro Weeklies are also moving in that direction…

All of this is part of this very active pattern that I’ve been yapping about for a few weeks now. Look at the total precipitation over the next 6 weeks on the EURO Weeklies…

The CFS through the same time period is pretty extreme…

The GFS Extended only goes through March 3rd but also shows a lot of precipitation…

I’ll drop by for updates later today. Make it a good one and take care.