1/9 - 3:30pm - Nice Warm Up Today... Enjoy It While You Can!

After barely getting above freezing yesterday, today's temperatures have felt great. Even though we had some wind in the afternoon hours, 45 isn't too bad for this time of year! Get ready for rain late tonight and into tomorrow as clipper system #1 comes through the region. A few snow showers are possible late tomorrow evening as this system exits the area.

The second clipper will come through on Monday night into Tuesday:


(Click image to see a larger view)

The past few runs of the GFS model have been trending toward rain at the beginning of this system, but as you can see in the 12z run above (at 96 hours out) this will end as some snow on the cold backside. Accumulations will be light, but I think we might be able to squeeze out an inch or slightly more by the time this is done on Tuesday.

Our third clipper will be here for Wednesday night into Thursday:



The models show light precipitation from that now, but I think this might be an underestimate. With a powerful cold front like this coming through and Gulf Moisture present in the south, I'm not sold on the lightness of the moisture that the GFS shows above. Give this one some time... the elements are there for a storm. With the very cold air in place behind this front, rain/snow conversion ratios will be higher (see yesterday's post for more on that).

After these three systems are done, extremely cold air will set in with a mighty trough sinking from Canada. Here's what the Louisville NWS says about it:

SUPER LARGE 1050+ HIGH PRESSURE CELL LOOKS TO DROP SOUTH ACROSS THE PLAINS AND THEN SETTLE SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTHEAST. THEREFORE...VERY COLD AND DRY WEATHER LOOKS TO BE IN STORE WED/THU INTO NEXT WEEKEND. TEMPS WILL LIKELY BE SOME 25 TO 30 DEG BELOW NORMAL...WHICH WOULD EQUATE TO THE COLDEST TEMPS OF THE SEASON THUS FAR...AND THE COLDEST TEMPS WITHIN THE LAST 10+ YEARS. BRRRR!

Dry weather will dominate with this super-cold air. So, we need to get snow with either the Tuesday or Wednesday clippers before this dry air comes in (that is, if you want snow).