Typical December weather into the mid-week as we edge closer to the Arctic blast

We enjoyed another quiet and relatively mild day by mid to late December standards across Central and Eastern Kentucky. Some late morning sunshine helped to push afternoon highs into the mid and upper 40s, even though we started and ended the day with a few scattered clouds. You’ll want to enjoy the quiet weather while it lasts.

Wednesday should be a repeat performance with afternoon highs reaching the mid to upper 40s with even a few low 50s possible down south. We’ll see a mix of clouds and sunshine before additional clouds begin to build in ahead of the game changing storm system set to arrive late Thursday. The Winter Solstice occurs at 4:47pm Eastern time on Wednesday and Mother Nature will follow suit with that blast of cold air right on cue.

The model data has been fairly consistent with the timing of the change from rain to snow and the winter blast of cold air arriving. Most of the models are within a couple of hours of each other so it looks like the changeover may happen late Thursday along the I-75 corridor and after Midnight into Eastern Kentucky. My only change is to drop temperatures a bit more as the bitterly cold air takes a firm grip on the Ohio Valley. We could easily wake up to temperatures either side of 0 degrees Friday morning, with wind chills -15 to -20. Don’t expect temperatures to climb anymore than a few degrees Friday with the dangerous wind chills continuing into we get well into Christmas Eve on Saturday as the low pulls away.

As I’ve mentioned several times, the snow potential is just one aspect of a very complex system. Do I think we’ll see a bit of light snow on the ground? Sure…but it appears the higher amounts may actually stay out to our northwest closer to the low. We’ll be dialing these numbers in heading into Wednesday, but the emphasis remains on the combination of the wind and cold…which could be extremely dangerous on Friday, especially with some folks having no choice but to try to travel that day. If you have to give it a go Friday, just take it slow and make sure you have a winter weather preparedness kit with you in your vehicle. Below is the timeline and key messaging for the impending storm…with a few minor tweaks from Monday. We’ll continue to track this closer into the late week.

ABC 36 HOUR FORECAST
TUESDAY NIGHT: Fair skies and cold. Lows in the upper-20s.
WEDNESDAY: Partly sunny and pleasantly cool. Highs in the mid to upper-40s.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Clouds increase, rain late. Lows in the mid-30s.