Since Tuesday night’s ice potential the weather has gotten much calmer with the sun finally deciding to join us again. Luckily during Tuesday night’s system temperatures had a very hard time falling below freezing but rather hover at or just above the freezing mark for most of the event. 1 degree or even just a half degree colder would have made quite a difference in how much ice accumulated. Just to our southwest in north-central Tennessee, there were reports of over a 1/4 inch of ice. With that our long streak of cloudy and rainy days came to and end so lets look to a better weekend ahead!
I’ll keep this discussion brief because this weekend will be generally a welcomed calm weekend weather-wise. I’m sure you noticed that temperatures we’re much warmer on Thursday that earlier this week. This trend should continue and we should even make it to the mid-upper 50s by Saturday. This is because a surface high pressure system over the south is moving eastward which will put Kentucky in the southerly-warm return flow. On Saturday the winds bringing in this warmer air will be quite strong with sustained winds from 15-20 mph and gust 25+ mph. This will be due to the pressure gradient between the surface high pressure in the southeast and a strong surface low pressure over the Great Lakes. Speaking of this system over the lakes,
A warmer windy Saturday will be thanks to the return flow (red arrows) around a surface high pressure in the southeast. A cold front will move through Sunday which will bring some very COLD air for early next week.
it will be moving east over the weekend dragging a cold front behind which will sweep through Kentucky Sunday. This cold front will bring our warming trend to a quick and major halt. High temperatures on Sunday will return to the 40s and lows by Monday morning will be in the low 20s. As for temperatures Monday and into Tuesday, that’s when the full force on the cold air mass will be felt; temperatures likely won’t make it out of the 20s for day time highs. This very well cold be the COLDEST air of the season so far! Lows will likely drop to the low teens! A gradual warm-up will occur starting Wednesday. Our next chance for rain will come Thursday into Friday of next week, until then enjoy a much needed week of sunny skies!
Daily Forecast:
Today: Sunny and getting warmer with a high near 52. Southwest winds from 5-10 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear with a low around 30. Southwest winds from 3-7 mph.
Saturday: Sunny and warmer with a high around 56. Windy!! Winds from 10-20 mph with gust 25+ mph!
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy with a low near 34. Winds from 5-10 mph switching from the WSW to the WNW.
Sunday: Mostly sunny but cooler with a high near 44. Winds NW 3-7 mph.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: COLD!!! Sunny with a morning low near 21 and a daytime high near 28.