Good Wednesday everyone and happy travels on what is usually the busiest travel day of the year. As is tradition here on the blog… the Wednesday before Thanksgiving pays respect to a classic movie wrapped around this holiday… Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This is actually one of my favorite movies and that should give you some insight into the warped mind of your friendly weather dude.

Let’s talk about the weather instead of going all Roger Ebert on you.

This continues to be a VERY busy weather period that will have more twists and turns than an afternoon soap opera. The first twist comes today as colder air shows up across the northern half of the state. Highs in this region will struggle today into the low and mid 40s after starting out in the 20s. Clouds will increase as warmer air surges in from the southwest. Speaking of…. southern and southwestern Ky will be near 60 for highs. This warm front will cause a batch of rain to break out along and north of it. These rains will be steadier across the north and west and you can track the drops here…



The more I look at today’s precip moving in… the more I think a touch of sleet will try to mix in with the rain for areas just to our north.

You can track today’s big temp spread here…



While on the temp theme… let’s start there in breaking down the big swing ahead for Thursday into Friday. Warm air will surge in here from south to north late tonight into Thanksgiving. The cold front will be to the west of us as will the main shield of rain for much of the day. Some sunshine and a strong southwesterly wind will be with us and should boost temps well into the 60s with a 70 possible. The front will come crashing in from the west Thursday evening into the nighttime hours and temps will tank! Readings will drop by 30 degrees in just a few hours and you can see that nicely here on the GFS…



The temp map tomorrow is going to be AMAZING to see!!

A band of gusty rains will be along and behind the front Thursday into early Friday. The cold air is going to catch the back edge and likely change the rain over to a period of sleet and snow that can last a few hours…



A warm ground strongly argues against snow sticking… but that doesn’t keep the models from showing it. Here is a look at the GFS snowfall and sleetfall forecast during this time…



Once again… it will be VERY difficult to put anything on the ground. It would have to come down pretty hard to do that and, while that is a possibility, I am leaning more toward a quick elevated surface coating in some areas early Friday morning.

With a lot of moisture and temps heading into the 20s by Friday morning… some slick spots could develop on area roads… especially bridges and overpasses. The snow and sleet will end quickly from west to east as skies become partly cloudy. It will be a blustery day with highs in the low and mid 30s. Happy shopping!

In looking ahead to next week… things continue to look very active with another rain and snow system later Monday through Wednesday with another possibly storm by the following weekend. The overall pattern continues to grow colder and colder with each system passing through here and this is a great setup for cold and snow lovers as we head into December.

I know I said the winter forecast would be out by now… but the active weather pattern this week is going to prevent that from happening. I will get it on here as soon as things calm down a bit later this weekend.

I will have an update later today so check back. I leave you with this…


Have a great Wednesday and take care.