Good evening, everyone. Frigid temps and bitterly cold wind chills are doing their thing across Kentucky. As the old saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet. A harsh winter pattern engulfs the country in the week ahead, putting our region in the line of fire for some big winter hits.
Let’s start with a general look at the overall pattern takin shape…
Bitterly cold air will take up residence across much of the country during this time. This pattern will force the storm track farther south, putting our region in an increased zone for snow and ice. This pattern is so cold that areas of the deep south may be dealing with snow and ice at times.
The first system of interest arrives Wednesday and Thursday and may brin two light bursts of winter weather. The Canadian sees the light potential…
The NAM can’t really give us much as it only goes out far enough to see Wednesday evening, but it’s trying to ramp thins up with snow and some rain…
The bigger potential comes from this weekend as a significant winter storm may develop in Texas and roll slowly northeast toward the Carolinas. We are in the early stages of the models seeing this so it’s way too early for specifics, but the trend and signal are there.
The Canadian sees this coming out in two pieces with another snow maker behind it early the following week…
That’s similar to what the morning run of the EURO had but the afternoon run ramped this system up in a big way. The late day EURO only goes out 144 hours and that only takes us to the beginning of this possible storm…
This weekend setup has some serious potential for a lot of people. What this means for our region is yet to be determined, but we are in the game from this point.
BTW, the EURO Ensembles continue to be about as brutally cold as you will ever see through the end of the month…
I’ll be back tonight with the full update. Enjoy the evening and take care.
I realize Chris wasn’t around in the late 70′ s winters . These winters were having doesn’t hold a candle what happen back at the time
Um, I think he’s in his early/mid 50s so he would have been a child in the late 70s and saw it…
Right on Winterlover. I was a kid in the latter 70s but I remember. Those were more harsh than these nowadays.
Zero F for a few days late January is not unusual for us. So when they say “below normal” temps expected, that’s cold! -25F is the all time record.
Rank Temperature Date
1 -25 °F January 18, 1977
2 -24 °F January 19, 1994
2 -24 °F January 17, 1977
4 -21 °F January 20, 1985