Arctic blast arrives heading into early Friday
Temperatures will crash some 30 degrees in a few hours, turning rain to snow and bringing bitter cold air and strong wind!
We’ve played the waiting game all week for the brutal cold, wind, and snow to arrive here in Central and Eastern Kentucky and the wait is about over. There are no major changes to our overall thinking of how things will play out and the impact it will have! Heading into late Thursday evening and the early hours of Friday, Arctic air will pour into the region as the front moves through so expect temperatures in the 40s with rain to quickly drop into the teens with snow in just a few short hours. This will cause a “flash freeze”, where the wet roads become icy quickly and essentially be the beginning of a rough few days of weather across the region.
I think a 2″-3″ snow total is still on the table but it is semantics in the grand scheme of things as the snow will be extremely hard to measure due to the strong winds and it will be blowing and drifting around after the bulk of it ends into Friday morning. We still should see some gusty snow showers at times through the day on Friday.
A Wind Chill Warning is out for the entire area into Friday afternoon (and it should and probably will be extended longer) with wind chills in the -20 to -30 range all the way into Christmas Eve morning. The last time we had a Wind Chill Warning around here was February 2015…so this doesn’t happen often. A Winter Storm Warning is out for the Bluegrass region and points west, with a Winter Weather Advisory for Eastern Kentucky. With the data trending closer to the 2″-3″+ snowfall range we’ve been talking about the last day or so, the warning was shifted east a bit.
We’ve adjusted temperatures DOWN for Friday with mornings lows around -5 degrees and highs struggling to even get ABOVE zero degrees.
The overall takeaway for everyone is that this isn’t hype or trying to work folks up into a frenzy for whatever reason. Friday will be a brutal day to be outside with dangerous and even life threatening conditions possible for anyone caught outside and not prepared for it. I’ve been doing this job a quarter century around here and I can’t ever remember such a drastic temperature drop, especially with the strong winds added in. Given the fact that we haven’t had really any significant cold through the fall, it’s going to be a big shock to the system when that cold hits you if you venture out on Friday.
As much as I hate to say it with Friday typically being a “travel day” for the holiday…I would NOT recommend any travel on Friday as it will be rough going with slick roads, blowing snow, and the bone chilling strong winds. Be prepared for a few power outages (keep those generators AWAY from your homes…carbon monoxide), and be sure the use caution with any alternative sources of indoor heat (space heaters) as we typically see a number of fires each winter because of it. And lastly, don’t forget about pets or animals of any kind. Protect them from the elements with shelter, food, and water that isn’t frozen if you have no choice to bring them in.
Stay with ABC 36 and we’ll have updates on-air and on-line with yours truly, Meteorologist Dillon Gaudet and Meteorologist Jordan Smith.
ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
THURSDAY NIGHT: Windy with snow, bitterly cold. Lows around -5, with wind chills -20 to-25.
FRIDAY: Windy and frigid, a few snow showers. Highs around 0 degrees with wind chills -20 to -30.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy and breezy, more bitter cold. Lows around -1 with wind chills -10 to -20.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Windy with snow, bitterly cold. Lows around -5, with wind chills -20 to-25.
FRIDAY: Windy and frigid, a few snow showers. Highs around 0 degrees with wind chills -20 to -30.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy and breezy, more bitter cold. Lows around -1 with wind chills -10 to -20.
