More snow showers to kick off the weekend

After the cold air settled back into the Ohio Valley for Thursday we managed to see a very brief break from it to close out the week on Friday. Of course we started cloudy and cold with temperatures dipping into the teens during the early hours of the day before a steady south wind helped push “milder” air back into the commonwealth for just a short window as the next frontal boundary approached from the northwest. Temperatures managed to rebound into the low 40s for afternoon highs with south winds at 10 to 15 miles per hour. With the aforementioned front moving in, initial rain showers will be possible into Friday evening but look for a change to snow pretty quickly as the cold air rolls in.

We may wake up to a bit of snow on the ground in many spots Saturday morning as the snow showers continue into the overnight period. This system has a little better potential for some accumulation than the ones earlier this week with anywhere from a light coating to around 1″ looks to be on the table. Once again some localized spots could see slightly high amounts with occasional “snow squalls” on tap through the day on Saturday. These are the brief, heavier bursts of snow that reduce visibility thanks to the gusty winds associated with them so keep that in mind if you are going to be out and about on Saturday. The overall impact should be lower relative to travel since it’s a weekend day and we won’t be dealing with slick roads during a typical weekday morning commute. A Winter Weather Advisory is out for much of Central Kentucky through Saturday morning due to the snow potential. Temperatures should remain in the low to mid-30s through mid-day before taking a tumble through the afternoon into the 20s as winds stay brisk out of the west.

The rest of the long holiday weekend looks dry but the wind and cold will be the big players in our weather. Even with some sunshine around on Sunday, afternoon highs will stay in the mid to upper 20s and it will feel colder than that at times as a southwest wind cranks up. Just like we saw on Thursday, morning “feel-like” temperatures should be in the single digits Sunday morning with the mid to upper teens much of the day. For the King holiday on Monday the dry weather will stay in place but it will be another cold day. A weak cold front  will move through with a few scattered clouds and a reinforcing shot of colder air so after starting the day in the low-20s, we should only recover a few degrees into the mid-20s for afternoon highs as the additional cold air drifts in.

More quiet weather is on tap into the middle of next week and the good news is that we should see a decent recovery in temperatures by Wednesday. With the coldest core of air overhead Tuesday morning, lows may dip down into the upper single digits and low teens before afternoon highs recover a bit into the upper 20s. With more of a southwest wind kicking in, look for a nice rebound in temperatures as milder air returns on Wednesday. Afternoon highs should work back into the low 40s, which is right around average for this time in January. Some of the data is showing another system heading our way late next week with mainly rain chances on tap but they aren’t handling the timing and placement of it very well so that’s something we’ll keep an eye on.