Good Sunday afternoon everyone. I wanted to drop by for an update to “clean” up the earlier post where snow somehow came out as something a little more slippery. 
I am bringing some tissue along to help out the cause.
As far as the weather goes… things continue to progress toward a pattern that can bring extreme winter weather for much of the country this month. The blocking showing up is tremendous and the Arctic Oscillation is about to go into the tank meaning some severe arctic blasts are likely to invade over the next several weeks.
The first system rolling across the south late Wednesday into Wednesday night can throw up some light snow across much of this region. The better threat for snow should come later Thursday into Friday as an arctic front slams through the state.
It appears the European Model is coming back toward being useful once again as it appears to have “worked stuff out” internally. 
We will use it to show where the pattern may be going over the next week and change. You can clearly see our late week arctic front blasting through here…
That would likely put down a light snowfall from late Thursday through Friday and usher in a shot of arctic air to kick off the weekend.
From there… the flow flattens out just a bit over the weekend allowing for the energy that is holding back across the southwestern US to come out and try its best to meet up with a real deal surge of major arctic air diving southeastward. That is a setup that should be watched as it is happening the period we said to watch for a eastern US winter storm. Once again… let’s use the European Model…
Wow… that would be snow followed by a major blast of arctic air for much of the country. This would be a pattern that can lock in for a while once it gets in here. If you just take a step back and look at the overall northern hemispheric pattern for the past month… there is a strong tendency for the weather go to toward the extreme. My concern is the U.S. could be looking at something like what has been happening over in europe lately.
Have a great rest of your Sunday and take care.
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LOL Thanks Chris! Loving your sense of humor (that goes so well with our weather situations!).
well lets get AT LEAST a WEEKS worth of school back …LOL… before the bottom falls out again…its been almost a MONTH since my kids have been to school.!!!!
I’m hearing the echo’s of the winter of 77′ being thrown around for this winter…WOW!! that was a rough winter..I think we were out of school that yr. from Christmas break til sometime in Feb..we went to school on Saturdays!!!, and they put chains on the ole buses back then too..so if we get there this yr…I’m gonna invest in a snowmobile to get my kids to school!!!…:)
I think the point that Chris is trying to get across here is that this looks serious; I know it is a way out but I have never seen some of the snowfall amounts that have been thrown around today for my area – north of nashville, about ten minutes from Franklin KY; I work in a local University, the snow days we have already had have created havoc for makeups etc; more importantly in this case is that if the Southeast in general gets creamed with a 8″-10″ snowfall that doesnt melt for an extended period of time, that could be disruptive for already hurting local economies.
this winter is nothing bad so far, well unless ur a teenager i guess,lol
I mean DEC was bad as far as the norm IMO the last several,several years but back in 80s and 90s this was a regular occurance. weeks of school missed etc.
i remember well below zero for days at nite with snow pack on several occasions.
JANUARY is going be nothing like DECEMBER was this year,
no it has the potential to be even worse…:(
You’re so boring and repatative. Go wait for the next model run so you can change your opinion to something else.
Thanks Chris! Guess I’m going to be sporting wool socks for a while 😉
I thought it was going to warm up for the rest of winter with hardly any snow? Thats what you said in DEC. Looks like JANUARY is going to be much COLDER and probably snowier than DEC was.
So when CBailey says he is looking at what Europe had in December for us—just cold or vast amounts of snow with it?
Winter of 77: frozen water mains, frozen drain lines, 30+ days out of school in Pulaski Co and memories of snow cream and cinnamon rolls!
What in the world are you talking about? London and Jackson set temperature records for December, and Jackson reported one of the snowiest Decembers on record. Here in Laurel co, we had two 6-8″ snowfalls in Dec, plus one significant freezing rain event.
I don’t remember this being a yearly occurrence either. I can remember some winters in the early 90’s, before the 93 superstorm, that were warm and featured mostly rain and some very balmy stretches. The only winters I can remember that had subzero temps and snowpack for a long period of time were the winters of 77-78. Those don’t happen often ya know.
Europe has had record cold AND snow…
77 and 78 were extreme winters but the winter of 84-85 was bad as well. We had very cold temps and lots of snow. Lawrence County went back to school after the Christmas break for one and a half days then didn’t go back until the middle of March. We went on six Saturdays just to make up some of the days missed that year.
I think some folks are in denial about what has been showing up in several of CB’s posts the past two weeks. Let’s face it though it has been like waiting for the great pumpkin if you are a snow lover round here in Cen KY! Based on what we have seen so far this could well turn out to be a top ten winter for Cen and East KY in many areas. Guess we have a few more days to regroup then once we get to Thursday/Friday and beyond it is game on! Anyone else feel like weare climbing up the big hill on a roller coaster ? I can practically hear the clanking sound as we are on the way up this week. I hope that anaolgy makes some sense anyway. Like a coaster we are on for the ride and about to find out! Apologies for the long post!!
Don’t be hating on Rolo…Once you get a few decades on you “extreme” weather becomes less so. There’s nothing about this past December that you could call “extreme.” Below normal temps, above normal snowfall. A good run. Nothing terribly memorable. I remember waking up on a January day in 1994 to an air temp of -23. That was extreme. All I would say to Rolo is there’s no way to know what January’s going to be like yet.
That is a great analogy and like any great roller coaster, there is likely to be more than one big hill and one big dip that this Winter has in store for the region
The analogy makes perfect sense to me…I am a roller coaster fan since…well, since I was a kid.
The Beast is my favorite.
I wish some of you folks would quit lambasting Rolo. He is one of the reasons I even bother reading the comments. He adds to this blog, just like all the other commentors and I cannot understand why some of you are so eager to be so belligerent to him.
Most of those being nasty to Rolo are new to the blog. Those of us who have been around for a while love hearing his thoughts just like the rest of the amateur weather lovers.
er os 77-78 were very snowy here in Pulaski County. I remember because we were married in 76 adn the next two winters were brutal. Mt husband lost his wedding ring in the deep snow cleaning off the windshield of my car. We found it about amonth later when we finally got a warm up and snow melt.
I mean big snows….12+ inches, and one on top of the other with very little melting in between.
Remember the brutal snow and cold of the 80s winters, too. Had frozen pipes, and they were three feet underground.
That secondary low over the western apps shown on January 10, is interesting.
Chris,Thank you for the great service you do. I check your blog every day. You are great!
yeah that 12z run brings a few inches of snow to the region.
not sure about the late 70’s but i think Jan 94 is fair game for an analog about how extreme the pattern could go.
January looks to be very active CB. Looking like most of Kentucky should get a couple of snows. However I think the time frame of Vodka Cold and snow is going to be limited to 2 to 3 weeks before we go into a major warm up at the end of January into the first few weeks of February. This is our time to cash in on the snow. If we don’t do it here, it might late February or early March before we get another shot at a good snow. Let’s make this a January to remember.
Why didn’t you say ’93..??? Why, why, why….?????
dreaming of the ’93 blizzard…
No insults on my part. But saying that December was just another run of the mill month is kind of ridiculous. Don’t believe me,than read this. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=jkl&storyid=61892&source=0
Snowiest December on record in Jackson and some here are saying it was nothing special? I think a few of ya are drinking the global warming kool aid that the Weather Channel and CNN like to throw out everyday.
For when Mitch
No offense, but the design really is horrible
Yeah, in my opinion, this is written on every fence:)