Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Jackson, KY
Issued by NWS Jackson, KY
Versions:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
519 FXUS63 KJKL 090010 AAA AFDJKL AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED National Weather Service Jackson KY 710 PM EST Sat Nov 8 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - The coldest airmass so far this season arrives on Sunday. - The first snowflakes of the season are expected Sunday night through Monday, with some light accumulations possible, mainly on grass and elevated surfaces. - With the snow Sunday night into Monday, locations above 2000 feet near the Virginia border are the most likely area to have any travel impacts. && .UPDATE... Issued at 625 PM EST SAT NOV 8 2025 23Z sfc analysis shows a potent area of low pressure moving toward the area from the Mid Mississippi Valley. Downstream of this eastern Kentucky is seeing light winds and partly cloudy skies. Plenty of sunshine earlier helped temperatures to warm into the mid and upper 60s most places. Now, temperatures are running near 60 degrees on the ridges to the low 50s in the valleys. Meanwhile, amid light winds, dewpoints are generally in the low to mid 40s with some upper 30s noted on the ridges. Have updated the forecast mainly to add in the latest obs and trends for the T/Td/Sky grids. These minor adjustments have been sent to the NDFD and web servers along with a freshening of the zones and SAFs. && .SHORT TERM...(This evening through Sunday night) Issued at 221 PM EST SAT NOV 8 2025 At current, high clouds remain over Eastern Kentucky, with afternoon highs in the mid to upper 60s under light winds. However, cloud heights lower heading into the evening. A trough from Hudson Bay, Canada with a surface low over the Mid-Mississippi Valley will bring a surface cold front through the area near dawn on Sunday. Rain showers will start to move into the area from west to east, anytime after 3 am. Overnight lows tonight remain mild in the mid to upper 40s, with lower 40s possible west of and along the I-75 corridor ahead of the cold front. Sunday, the high for the day will likely occur in the morning ahead of the cold front. Arctic air behind the cold front moves through the area later in the afternoon. Low 50s can be expected in the morning, before temperatures cool into the low to mid 40s by 2-3 PM, and upper 30s to low 40s by 7 PM. By 7 AM Monday, temperatures will be in the mid 20s. As such, rain showers will slowly transition to a rain-snow mix after sunset, before fully changing over to snow by midnight. .LONG TERM...(Monday through Saturday) Issued at 206 PM EST SAT NOV 8 2025 NBM 4.3 probabilities for 1 inch or greater snowfall late Sunday through Monday continue to rise, with most areas along and northeast of a Rockcastle to Bell County line now with probability of exceedance values of 50 to near 100 percent, highest in the broad vicinity of the Black Mountain area. Models are in good agreement on a highly amplified upper trough digging southeast across the area Monday, with some differences in timing. Of particular note, all models depict a particularly strong mid- and upper-level vort max moving southeast across the area, with lessening amplification through the lower levels of the atmosphere. This sets up a scenario where the period begins Monday morning with cold advection snow showers, but transitions to a Q-G warm advection light to moderate snow event for a few to several hours on the immediate back end of the vort max before snow ends Monday evening or overnight. An additional complexity with this event is that the models are not in agreement where the strong vort max crosses eastern Kentucky, which has a significant impact in where the period of steadier snow occurs. The GFS is farthest north across northeastern Kentucky while the ECMWF is farthest south, with the remainder of models in between but perhaps leaning a bit more towards the ECMWF. Thus, while the likelihood of accumulating snow with at least some impacts is increasing, there is still considerable uncertainty with what areas of eastern Kentucky will see the highest accumulations and associated impacts. The exception to this is of course along higher elevations of southeastern Kentucky near/along the Virginia border, especially in the Black Mountain vicinity, where confidence is increasing in at least a couple of inches of snow falling. One last additional complicating factor is that the period will be entering the CAMS window over the next couple of forecasting cycles, which will hopefully allow forecasters to flesh out some of the finer details with this event. The other big story which has been well advertised at this point is the potential for bitterly cold temperatures for early November. Highs Monday will only reach the lower to mid-30s across the area, a full 25 degrees or more below normal and likely cold enough for record low maximum temperatures at both Jackson and London, so the precipitation type will most likely remain all snow Monday into Monday night given fairly steep lapse rates. Lows Tuesday morning will likely fall into the lower to mid 20s, with a few teens in the coldest locations. Tuesday to Wednesday night, a shortwave ridge moves across the area with 500 mb height rises anticipated Tuesday into Tuesday evening as the pattern trends toward less amplification. However, a broad upper trough should linger into the MS Valley and eastern CONUS to the south of an upper low in the vicinity of Hudson and James Bay. Temperatures will remain below normal, with highs on the order of 15 to 20 degrees below normal for Tuesday with further moderation on Wednesday ahead of an approaching shortwave and cold front. This front will cross eastern KY later Wednesday into Wednesday night, but the airmass will be more moderate compared to the late weekend/early week airmass. Thursday to Friday, the western ridge should move east toward the Plains while the upper low and trough in Canada move east and the axis of this trough moves well east. Sfc high pressure will build from the Central Conus into the OH Valley and Southern Appalachians before shifting southeast of the area to end the period on Friday. Upper ridging will generally dominate during the Thursday to Friday period as well. Temperatures should be within 5 degrees of normals. && .AVIATION...(For the 00Z TAFS through 00Z Sunday evening) ISSUED AT 710 PM EST SAT NOV 8 2025 VFR conditions are currently observed at all TAF sites. Clouds should begin to increase and lower these evening ahead of the next potent cold front. A few showers could affect the region late in the period with brief reductions to as low as MVFR. Otherwise, light and variable winds will increase from the south to southwest at 5 to 10 kts on early Sunday morning as the front gets closer. Winds continue to increase behind the front perhaps reaching near 15 kts for Sunday afternoon. && .JKL WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$ UPDATE...GREIF SHORT TERM...GINNICK LONG TERM...CMC/JP AVIATION...CMC/GREIF