More Arctic cold settles in for the King holiday

Mother Nature threw another round of accumulating snow across Central and Eastern Kentucky to close out the weekend Sunday. With a wave of low pressure to our east and moisture wrapping back into the area behind it, most locations saw a fresh blanket of snow on Sunday with a general 2″-4″ snow across our area with higher totals in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. With temperatures in the 20s this created some slick roadways around the region although many of the main roads were in pretty good shape by late Sunday afternoon. With colder air moving in, the tricky travel will unfortunately persist into early Monday even as the snow showers wind down.

The big story heading into MLK Day will be another Arctic blast moving into the Ohio Valley. Temperatures on Monday morning should drop into the low to mid range single digits and with a west wind at 5 to 10 miles per hour, our “feel-like” temperatures will be below zero at times so keep that in mind if you’ll be out for any of the King holiday activities. A Cold Weather Advisory is out for the entire area due to the very cold temperatures and wind chills expected through Monday morning. Afternoon highs won’t recover much even with plenty of sunshine around with highs struggling to reach the mid-teens!

The data is now showing a couple of boundaries/waves that will have an impact on the cold air through the early to mid-week so we are looking at a few rounds of very cold air. More of a southwest flow and some clouds into Monday night may help hold out temperatures up a touch, even though it will be frigid again Tuesday morning with lows in the single digits. A few flurries look possible Tuesday before the boundary brings a reinforcing shot of cold air into the mid-week so Wednesday morning could possibly be the coldest of this stretch with temperatures close to the 0 degree mark to start the day.

Luckily the Arctic air mass won’t stay locked in long as we see some moderating temperatures later this week. Highs look to be back close to freezing by Thursday and Friday with a few more flurries possible Thursday afternoon as the next wave rotates through. The upward trend in temperatures should continue into next weekend with highs getting closer to average for late January into the low 40s. A few of the models are indicating a few rain showers could work in by late Sunday so we’ll keep an eye on that.

ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
SUNDAY NIGHT: Breezy with frigid temperatures. Lows in the low to mid single digits. Wind chills below zero.
MONDAY: Mostly sunny and very cold. Highs in the mid-teens.
MONDAY NIGHT: Clear early, then mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper single digits.