Chilly air and a few flakes to close out 2025

Winter is definitely back here in the Bluegrass and you could feel it once again on Tuesday across Central and Eastern Kentucky. Some lingering clouds and flurries greeted those out the door early with temperatures in the upper teens and low 20s along with wind chills down into the single digits for a period of time. Eventually enough dry air worked in from the southwest to bring a bit of sunshine back to the area but it didn’t do much to help warm us up as afternoon highs struggled to reach the upper 20s in the north with a few low 30s down south.

Heading into the final day of 2025, a series of disturbances and “clipper systems” will drop through the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley keeping a few clouds in the mix along with the potential of a few snowflakes as folks head out to celebrate the coming of the new year. With a breezy west to southwest wind expected, afternoon highs should climb back into the upper 30s in most locations despite the cloud cover, It will still feel pretty chilly if you are out and about and you’ll need to dress accordingly if you have New Year’s Eve plans. As a weak cold front drops in late evening, a few light snow showers will be possible across the Bluegrass and points to the east and north, which may be enough to lay a light coating on the ground into the early hours of 2026.

It should be a pretty quiet start to the new year on Thursday as the departing clipper takes any leftover snow showers with it as the holiday festivities wind down during the early morning hours. The first day of 2026 should feature a reinforcing shot of colder air in the wake of the departing front. While it should be significantly colder, we will see temperatures back off a few degrees with highs into the mid-30s on Thursday. Unfortunately we may not see much in the way of sunshine for the first few days of the new year as a wave of energy slides by to our south late on Friday. The data has been trending farther south with the moisture so the chances of chilly showers down south is looking less likely but clouds should hang around as temperatures rebound into the low to mid-40s for highs.

Overall it looks to be a pretty quiet first weekend of 2026 with dry and tranquil conditions expected. Saturday should feature a mix of clouds and sunshine as afternoon highs back off a few degrees into the low 40s thanks to an east wind in place thanks to the wave of low pressure moving off to our southeast. Temperatures should begin to rebound slightly on Sunday with that upward trend continuing into early next week. Hopefully by Monday our afternoon highs will spike back up into the upper 40s, which is a few degrees above average for early January. There is some indication a dry front will slide through on Tuesday with nothing more than a few clouds and a slight drop in temperatures with afternoon highs back into the low-40s.