Shift in our weather pattern on the way as winter cold returns

It was another delightful January day across Central and Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday thanks to high pressure in control to our southeast providing a good bit of sunshine across the area. In addition to the sunshine we saw breezy southwest winds with gusts over 30 miles per hour on occasion, which helped to drive afternoon highs !all the way into the low to mid-50s. This put readings a good 10 degrees plus above average for this time of the year and hopefully you’ve enjoyed the slightly milder air the last few days as we’ve got a shift in our weather pattern set to kick in for the mid-week.

A frontal boundary will drop into the Ohio Valley into early Wednesday bringing a return of scattered rain showers to the region. Take the rain gear along as it will come in handy from time to time during the day. Temperatures won’t move very much as they struggle to hover in the low to mid-40s, which is where may land officially for afternoon highs. As we get deeper in the day, colder air will filter in behind the front with temperatures dropping into the 30s by evening. With some leftover energy and moisture, a few light snow showers will be possible heading into Wednesday night but amounts look to be pretty low with the best chances coming in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. The bigger story may be the cold as temperatures tumble into the upper teens and low 20s Wednesday night and the brisk winds knock our “feel-like” temps down into the single digits. There is the potential of some impact on the Thursday morning commute for those that do see some snow as even a light coating could create some slick travel so keep that in mind.

It will definitely feel like mid-January to end the week with unseasonably cold air settling into the Ohio Valley. With a mix of clouds and sunshine along with a brisk northwest wind, afternoon highs should struggle to reach the mid to upper 20s on Thursday so you’ll want to plan ahead for that. Our active weather pattern should remain in place as several pieces of energy rotate through the region from the northwest so any chance for some wintry weather will be in play on Friday. Even with a southwest return flow helping to push temperatures back into the mid-30s for highs on Friday, anything that falls should be mainly snow showers, although a few rain drops  could be mixed in during the afternoon. At this point the impacts on Friday look fairly low end especially with any snow showers that fall during the daylight hours.

Heading into the weekend we’ll see additional “spokes” of energy rotating through the region keeping the chances for a few scattered snow showers around. The best window for some light accumulation at this point looks to be Friday night and into Saturday morning so that could create a few travel headaches depending on how things play out. Temperatures should top out in the low 30s relatively early on Saturday before a reinforcing shot of colder air arrives with falling temperatures through the afternoon. A few spotty snow showers will hang around as more cold air settles in. Temperatures could drop all the way into the low teens to begin Sunday with another typical mid-January day on the way as afternoon highs only recover into mid-20s. Some of the data shows another clipper system just off to our north for the King holiday on Monday so a few flakes of snow may be possible although most spots should remain dry. Afternoon highs look to stay below the curve with upper 20s and low-30s on tap early next week and the breezy conditions making it feel even colder.