Good Wednesday, folks. Old Man Winter put the smackdown on many areas Tuesday with thundersnow, high winds and cold temps. This has been a long and amazing winter across the bluegrass state. It’s one that will be talked about for years to come because it just would not quit.
I can finally say I am seeing much more of a spring pattern taking shape. I’m not saying this is going to be a gorgeous few weeks ahead of us, but it will be better than where we’ve been.
Our weather today starts with bitterly cold temps for this time of year. Lows will be down in the mid and upper teens for many and this could challenge a few records. Sunshine will help temps warm all the way into the balmy upper 30s to low 40s. For perspective, normal highs should be close to the low 60s.
Thursday will see a milder breeze take our temps closer to normal. These winds will blow clouds and some showers and thunderstorms our way by Thursday evening. This action will ramp up Thursday night into Friday morning with showers and thunderstorms likely.
Clearing skies and gusty winds will be with us into Friday afternoon. The dry weather won’t last very long as low pressure works into the region by Saturday…
This will bring more rain and some thunder our way through Saturday night. Rainfall from Thursday through Saturday could be greater than one inch for much of the state…
Chilly and drier air pushes in here for Saturday night. We will mild it up later Sunday into Monday ahead of our next storm system rolling through here Monday night and Tuesday…
Showers and thunderstorms should accompany that system, with colder air pushing back in behind it. I warned you this is not going to be a gorgeous pattern, but it will be “better”.
I am still not convinced we have seen our last snowflakes of the season. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before. 😉
Enjoy your day and take care.
wonder what is the record for the latest snowfall in ky
I do know that there were snow flakes in the air at post time for the Kentucky Derby in 1989.
I was in the infield. Mint Juleps made it easier to keep warm.
I don’t know statewide–but Lexington had 6 inches on May 20, 1894.
I’ve heard this one before.
Indeed the winter that won’t quit!
Yesterday’s 2.0 inch total in Lexington was a record for March 25th. It was also the highest total this late in the season since April 4, 1987.
And for March, the total is now 7.5 inches. That’s the most in March since 8.0 inches in 1978. (One note on that: the “superstorm” of 1993 dropped 6.5 inches at the airport, where records are taken, even though the East side of Fayette County had considerably more).
Moving forward, it looks like snow for March is done. There have only been 17 days since the 1890’s with more than 1 inch of snow after April 1st.
chris, was that 2″ in the ground all at once, or did some fall, then melt, then accumulate again?
Either way, that is impressive. I am just curious. We only got 1/2″ in Louisville, and only 1/4″ of that was on the ground at once.
It was not all at once. The snow would fall, then melt, then fall, etc. When snow did fall, it was hard, and when the snow did accumulate, it melted fast! But I’d say an inch fell all at once in one squall that brought ZERO visibility, 30 mph winds, and thunder snow all in less than 20 minutes! It was the most ferocious snow I had experienced all winter.
We had 0.7 inches through 2:00 P.M. that melted off. The front that came through in the afternoon dumped 1.3 inches from about 3:15 to 4:30. So an inch an hour rate for a time!
if I am correct our first flakes flew in Oct and now it is March and still snowing so that would make us having some type of snow for 6 month straight! WOW, after yesterdays snow that puts us at 45 inches of snow for the winter in my part of KY !!!!!!!!!
The “springometer” on my blog is finally crossing over and speeding up looking at next week!
Got a few specks of snow in Carrie, temp at 21 this morning
14 in Lawrenceburg and Frankfort this morning. 19 in Lexington. That’s the 4th coldest temp ever in Frankfort this late in the season. Those records date back to 1895.
Im like a wildcat that has been caged for way too long awaiting spring to finally get here. I am completely beyond sick and tired of winter and if I never saw another snowflake again it would be entirely too soon.
As touched on, it of course was very cold last night. The Kentucky Mesonet had one low of 13 (Meade County, which includes city of Brandenburg). Otherwise, lots of teens and a few lower 20s. Even 24 here in Nashville TN.
On the one hand, winds were calm so no wind chill, and the bright morning sunshine helped a bit. On the other side of the coin, the lack of wind meant many of us had the scrape the frost off our windshields (especially those that have run out of deice spray 🙁 ). So ready to retire the plows and the scrapers for the season 😉 .
As we know, the severe thunderstorm/tornado season has gotten off to a near record slow start.
Now that we are finally seeing real hints of spring in the future, a few wx sources such as this one (click link) are now giving an outlook that predicts that KY and TN will have a more normal severe wx season from this point on. Note that areas to our south and to our north could be above normal.
To bring home the point that we are approaching the heart of severe wx season, we are about to mark some somber anniversaries.
Exactly twenty years since the Palm Sunday outbreak in AL and GA (including the church hit in Piedmont AL).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Sunday_tornado_outbreak
Exactly thirty years since the infamous Carolina outbreak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Carolinas_tornado_outbreak
Closer to our area, we have the March 27 1890 Louisville twister, as well as the upcoming 40th anniversary of the April 3 1974 Superoutbreak:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=top10tornadoes