Fast moving system could bring a quick shot of snow into early Tuesday

It was a fairly quiet start to the week Monday weather-wise across Central and Eastern Kentucky with mainly overcast conditions, some patchy fog in the south and afternoon highs a bit above average in the upper 40s and low 50s. As a fast moving area of low pressure slides in from the southwest, we are looking at some impactful weather through Monday night and Tuesday morning as the low slides by to our south. We should start out as rain with some heavy downpours possible before some colder air wraps into the early hours of Tuesday. That’s when it gets a bit tricky relative to snowfall and amounts given the set-up. The parent low will become a classic “Nor’easter” into Tuesday with heavy snow expected into the major cities into New England.

As always the devil is in the details and this looks like a challenging set-up to nail down snowfall totals into Tuesday. First it should be a brief window for snow as temperatures get colder enough but those areas that do see it could pick-up some moderate to heavy bursts and a few inches of accumulation in a short period of time. Temperatures will be critical as well since we should be hovering around freezing so a degree or two could make the difference between it staying rain a bit longer or switching over to snow, which would really impact the end result. Lastly, the model data has been trending farther south the last 24 hours with for the best snow chances so there are plenty of adjustments that are being made on the fly.

So given all that, we should see an inch or SNOW of wet snow possible from Lexington and points south and east. There will be a “sweet spot” somewhere across Central Kentucky where 1″- 2″ plus totals will be realized wherever the heaviest snow band materializes. Keep in mind that this won’t last long plus it will be out of here by daybreak so the impact shouldn’t be anything off the charts. We should see some slushy roadways in spots through the morning along with a few slick roads so keep that in mind. A Winter Weather Advisory is out for the early hours of Tuesday for much of the area so plan on a little extra tie Tuesday morning.

With sunshine returning and afternoon highs surging back into the low and mid-40s with a breezy west wind, whatever snow we see should be eaten up pretty quickly and melt away. It actually should be a decent afternoon thanks to the sunshine and the quiet weather should extend into Valentine’s Day as highs surge into the low to mid-50s.

Late this week, a couple of fast moving “clipper systems” will dive through the Ohio Valley and be close enough to produce a few scattered showers. We are pretty confident with the Thursday system being all rain but we’ll have to watch the Friday system as some of the data is showing rain showers initially before changing into snow showers as the system departs. It should be a bit colder to start the weekend with highs only in the mid to upper 30s.

ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
MONDAY NIGHT: Breezy with rain changing to snow. Lows in the low-0s.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny, breezy and cool. Highs in the low to mid-40s.
TUESDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear and cold. Lows in the low-30s.