at 6:06 AM by Dustin Knight

Wet WABBLES Weekend Continues

Happy Saturday! Don’t know if you’ve noticed but it’s been a wet start to the weekend, and…it’s going to stay that way for at least one more day. In other news, a brisk northwest wind has set up across pretty much the entire Ohio Valley bringing colder air with it, temperatures will linger in the 30’s today and drop to the upper 20’s overnight. This cold shot will be relatively short-lived though and we’ll see southerly flow return, and thus at least some degree of warming and clearer weather on Sunday.

Saturday

The main story today is morning rain and the potential for snow flurries this afternoon as our wet weekend continues. Now, everytime there’s a mention of snow it gets attention but impacts are not expected from this, and in fact it would be surprising to see any notable accumulation. Perhaps a dusting is possible in central KY but it seems that the strongest lift (needed to produce clouds and precip) will arrive just ahead of the coldest air likely resulting in mixed precip and limiting accumulation. Temperatures will top out near 40 today and drop to near 30 overnight. The upper-low will clear us Saturday night and high-pressure with clearer skies will remain in its wake.

Also worth noting is that gusty winds will be ongoing throughout the weekend as we see the WABBLES region locked in between weather systems. These gusts at times will approach 30mph.

Satellite imagery showing the approaching upper-level low (NOAA/NESDIS)
Surface observations at 4:00am central time with the surface front outlined (SPC)
Model forecast of snow accumulation Saturday. It’s not as bad as it looks because the snow across the WABBLES region is generally around 0.1″, and that’s likely aggressive given expected temperature profiles. (NCEP/ESRL)
HRRR model forecast of temperatures (NCEP/ESRL)

Sunday

As we wake up Sunday morning we’ll see lingering clouds and temperatures will be near 30 but low-level flow will become southwesterly and we will see temperatures top out near 50 degrees. Clouds will clear and mostly sunny skies should dominate the afternoon. Overnight lows will again be near 30 degrees but the wind will calm down some to help limit wind chill.

NWS forecast of temperatures for Sunday depicting some slightly warmer air returning Kentucky (NWS)

Monday

High-pressure will continue to be the main influence over the region as we kick off next week and Monday will be basically a copy-and-paste of Sunday, at least during the day. Temperatures near 50 degrees, overnight lows in the 20s-30s, mostly sunny afternoon. However an active weather pattern is setting up across the midwest and another low-pressure system will be digging into KY beginning Monday night and sticking around through Tuesday. This will bring with it more rain.

Overall that’s the pattern right now, mild temperatures interrupted periodically by a cold front and rain. None of it looks particularly impactful over the short-term but an umbrella will regularly come in handy over the next several days. Have a great WABBLES weekend!