Good Tuesday, everyone. It’s a very busy setup across the region today into Wednesday as a potent storm system brings a serious clash of the seasons. High winds and a few severe storms will be followed by crashing temps and a light snowfall. Buckle up, buttercup!

Here’s a quick timeline:

TODAY

  • Temps surge into the 60s.
  • A strong southwest wind cranks with gusts of 30mph-40mph by late this afternoon.
  • Strong to severe storms develop and move into far western Kentucky late this afternoon.

TONIGHT

  • Winds absolutely crank with gusts topping 50mph at times.
  • Local 60mph gusts will be possible.
  • A squall line of showers and storms races from west to east across the state.
  • This line may be severe with damaging winds the main threat as this line rolls quickly eastward.

WEDNESDAY

  • The day starts with strong to severe storms exiting eastern Kentucky.
  • A dry slot directly behind this line may allow sunshine to help crank those winds again.
  • Early day gusts of 50mph will be possible.
  • Another round of showers and storms then sweeps eastward by early in the afternoon.
  • A few of these may be strong.
  • Temps tank behind this with wrapround rain and snow showing up across western and central Kentucky by evening.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

  • Periods of light to moderate snow will be likely across central and eastern Kentucky.
  • Light accumulations are a good bet with some local 1″ amounts possible.
  • Most of what sticks will be on elevated surfaces and elevated surfaces.
  • Winds will continue to be gusty, meaning some pretty good plastering of the wet snow.
  • Temps drop into the 20s with wind chills in the teens.
  • Slick spots may develop on bridges and overpasses.

Given the potential for big time winds, a Wind Advisory is already out for much of the region today…

I could see some of this upgraded to a High Wind Warning tonight.

As far as the round of storms goes, this is a low-topped line of thunderstorms moving across the state. These may not even have much lightning with them, but can spit out damaging wind gusts. Here’s the Future Radar from the Hi Res NAM from this afternoon through 7am Wednesday…

The Storm Prediction Center sometimes has a tough time with messaging on this marginal events that hit in the middle of the night, which is generally in between the times they focus on for thir Severe Weather Outlooks.

Here’s what they have for today…

That threat quickly moves east after sunup Wednesday…

In terms of the snow aspect to this system, this is some pretty stout wraparound action on the Hi Res NAM Future Radar from late Wednesday afternoon through 7am Thursday…

Once this goes through, we focus on the weekend and the potential for two systems to impact our weather. The first is a gusty shower maker for Friday and early Saturday. The second is the one that has the question marks around it.

The GFS has been bringing this far enough north to impact our region with rain to snow…

The EURO has had this passing to our south with very little impact…

As I mentioned over the weekend, we have significant changes showing up for the middle and end of March as the models are now going toward a very blocky look to the pattern. That would mean temps may go back to below normal after a warmup next week.

The EURO Ensembles sees a big dip in the jet stream later next week with an even colder look for the week of the 17th…

That’s ugly for true Spring lovers.

I will have updates later today. Until then, I have you all set to track today’s active weather…

Current watches
Current Watches

Possible Watch Areas

Current MDs

Stay safe and have a great Tuesday. Take care.