textproduct: Paducah

KEY MESSAGES

- A couple weekend blasts of cold air will make January feel like...January! Light snow showers or flurries may accompany these passes, but the main impact will be the cold. Wind chills will run single digits for most of us each morning beginning tonight and running thru the start of the new week. - Next best wintry precipitation chances comes middle-latter part of next week, after a brief mid week warmup and followed by another cold blast that heads us into the weekend. It is still too early to tell if any such wintry precipitation chance will hold or be impactful, but it is worth keeping an eye on for now.

UPDATE

Issued at 517 PM CST Sat Jan 17 2026

Updated aviation discussion for 00z TAFs.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 1235 PM CST Sat Jan 17 2026

Channel-wise vorticity rotates thru the primary long wave trof axis as it makes its passage tonight. Until then, spotty light snow showers will be possible. However, the atmosphere is so moisture starved in the lower levels at least, that little more than a dusting has been anticipated, if that. The primary impact will be the reinforcing shot of cold air that is drawn in, with lows dropping thru the teens tonight. This is a beginning signal reminder that we are in January, and that January cold is going to stick around awhile. Another wave drops from the High Plains thru the Great Lakes tmrw, and it does most of its damage up there, but continues the cold air funnel down here; maybe we get some flurries with its action, but it's a dry column it encounters, even with some temporary southwesterlies setting up at the surface. Again the main impact is the reinforcing cold, with highs struggling to reach toward the freezing mark in most locations Sunday, and nightly lows again in the teens. Single digit wind chills enter the impacts picture for the start of the work/school week. The north may just flirt with some negative digits even, but looks like it stays just warmer than headline criteria.

The cold block dome of surface high pressure holds into the mid week. Monday is coldest, with highs only in the 20s in most locations! Monday night might see some single digit lows in our north, but winds diminish so wind chills won't be any more of a cause of concern than the previous 2 nights, with single digit chills remaining the main theme for the work/school day starts.

By Wednesday, air mass modification will help highs reach into/thru the 40s. That should keep the next system's pcpn chances in the liquid range mostly, with change-over pcpn light/spotty enough to not cause too much alarm at this writing; something to watch for though as frontal passage positioning/timing could greatly impact said chances. And this fropa offers another blast of cold that finishes out our week and takes us into the weekend running with below normal temps and perhaps another shot for wintry pcpn. The latest 6-10/8-14 day outlooks suggest more of the same, so the back half of January looks like a cold one.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z SUNDAY/

Issued at 517 PM CST Sat Jan 17 2026

VFR conditions expected through this TAF period. Some low VFR cigs and a few flurries migrating through northern terminals this evening will give way to primarily clear skies overnight. Additional mid cloud will rotate back into the region during the day on Sunday. Winds will go light overnight before picking up out of the southwest tomorrow. Some gusts up to 20 kts are possible in the afternoon, especially at western terminals.

PAH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

IL...None. MO...None. IN...None. KY...None.