Late January cold stays locked in mid to late week

Occasional snow showers should add to the wintry pattern

1 hour ago

T.G. Shuck,

It was a frigid start to Tuesday across Central and Eastern Kentucky with the very cold air in place combining with a brisk southwest wind to knock our “feel-like” temperatures down between -10 to -15 during the early morning hours. One bit of good news was that the southwest wind component actually helped temperatures steady and then slowly rise during the overall hours so most locations stayed in the lower single digits into the early hours of Tuesday before climbing back toward the lower teens around daybreak. In reality this didn’t make too much of a difference since it was counteracted by the pretty brutal wind chills. It was nice to see some sunshine during the morning hours, before a weak frontal boundary brought more clouds and a few light snow showers/flurries to the area later in the day as afternoon highs worked back into the low 20s.

In the wake of the departing front into Wednesday, more Arctic air will be in play across the region as the overall frigid pattern stays put for the time being. Skies may clear a bit in spots during the early hours of the day and with all the snow/ice on the ground, temperatures should dip down into the low to mid range single digits. Winds will be a bit lighter than what we saw on early Tuesday, but even a slight breeze will be enough to push wind chills down below zero at times in some locations, so a Cold Weather Advisory is out for the northern half of the state through 10 AM Eastern Wednesday to account for that. We should see some additional sunshine through Wednesday but it won’t do much to warm us up as afternoon highs struggle to sneak into the low 20s here in the Bluegrass with mid-20s down south. Another wave of energy should slide our way by Wednesday evening with a few more snow showers and possibly a light coating in a few spots.

Heading into the late week, Thursday looks like a decent day considering the on-going Arctic pattern that has a firm grip on the eastern part of the country. With some additional sunshine around mixed in with scattered clouds, afternoon highs should work back into the mid 20s here in Central Kentucky with the upper 20s possible down south. While this won’t get us back to freezing, it should at least “feel” a little less frigid, especially with the winds being fairly light across the region. Unfortunately this “break” won’t last long as another weak yet fast moving wave of energy dives in from the northwest Thursday night and into Friday. Not only will it bring some additional light snow shower chances (any low end accumulation you’ll likely won’t even notice except on the roads that have been cleared off) but more importantly another round of Arctic air so temperatures should only reach the mid to upper teens on Friday.

The core of the Arctic airmass looks to rotate right over Central and Eastern Kentucky into the weekend as much of the data is should an east coast low developing off of the Carolinas and moving northward toward New England. This should bring the potential for early morning lows to drop below zero yet again for Saturday morning so plan ahead for that! We will have to watch the evolution and eventual track of the low pressure to our east as it’s possible that the system could throw some light snow into the eastern mountains if it’s close enough. The weekend looks very cold to start with afternoon highs on Saturday only working back into the low to mid-teens, but sadly that’s not something we haven’t already dealt with lately. I guess it’s a fitting way to close out the month of January. Kicking off February on Sunday, the very cold air will hang around as we tack on a few degrees to afternoon highs but still remain in the upper teens and low 20s for highs. There is some indication that we may finally get to or even above freezing for highs heading into early next week so let’s hope for that!