A weak disturbance brought isolated light snow showers to portions of eastern Kentucky on December 31st.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS JKL wrote it up.
A weak disturbance brought isolated light snow showers to portions of eastern Kentucky on December 31st.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Jackson, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 30, 2:57 PM EST, 4 hours 3 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON KY 257 PM EST WED DEC 30 2009 .SHORT TERM.../TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT/...UPDATED THREE MAJOR FEATURES TO IMPACT AREA WEATHER. FIRST IS THE VERY DRY AIR IN PLACE AT THE LOWER LAYERS. T/TD DEPRESSIONS RUNNING 20-25 DEG. TEMPS IN THE MID 40S WITH DWPTS IN THE UPPER TEENS. SO DRY THAT THE PCPN THAT TRIED TO MIGRATE INTO ERN KY DRIED OUT AND EVEN SOME OF THE CLOUD COVER. THAT ONLY HELPED THE SOUTHERLY WINDS TO RAISE TEMPS WITH EXTRA SUNSHINE. SECOND FEATURE IS A SHORT WAVE TRACKING ACROSS THE GULF COAST THAT IS NOW PROGGED TO STAY WELL SOUTH AND EAST OF THE AREA. THIS WILL KEEP THE INFLUX OF LLVL MOISTURE TO A MIN. THIRD FEATURE IS THE ARCTIC AIR MASS DROPPING THRU THE NRN PLAINS WITH SOME VERY COLD AIR. DUE TO THE SOURCE REGION OF CONTINENTAL POLAR AIR THIS WILL NOT HAVE MUCH MOISTURE EITHER. EXPECT SOUTHERN SYSTEM TO PUSH WARMER AIR NORTH ALONG WITH SOME MOISTURE. AIRMASS WILL NEED SOME TIME TO OVERCOME THE DRY LOWER LAYERS... SO LOOK FOR A LOWERING OF THE CLOUDS FIRST FOLLOWED BY SOME VIRGA AS THE MOISTURE WORKS ITS WAS DOWN. FINALLY... RAIN SHOULD BEGIN IN THE SW AND WORK ITS WAY NE. DUE TO THE DRY ATMOSPHERE AND THE DISTANCE AND MEAGER AMOUNTS OF MOISTURE EXPECTED TO WORK INTO THE REGION PRECIPITATION WILL BE RELETIVELY LIGHT AND ALL RAIN THRU NEARLY MIDNIGHT THU. RAINFALL TOTALS WILL RANGE FROM AROUND A THIRD OF AN INCH IN WAYNE COUNTY TO LESS THAN A QUARTER OF AN INCH IN PIKE COUNTY. COLD FRONT LEADING THE ARCTIC AIRMASS WILL CROSS ERN KY BETWEEN SUNSET AND MIDNIGHT THU NITE. COLD AIR BEHIND THE FRONT WILL CHANGE PCPN TO SNOW AROUND MIDNIGHT WITH NEARLY EVERYONE SEEING SOME SNOW. LACK OF GULF MOISTURE AND DRY SOURCE REGION FOR THE ARCTIC AIR WILL LIMIT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS. CURRENTLY EXPECTING A DUSTING IN THE WRN COUNTIES OF OUR CWFA TO AROUND AN INCH IN THE ERN COUNTIES. THIS WILL NOT BE AN ELEVATION DEPENDENT SNOWSTORM AS THE COLD AIR WILL UNDERCUT THE WARMER AIR WITH ALL LOCATIONS CHANGING DIRECTLY TO SNOW WITHIN A FEW HOURS OF FNTL PASSAGE. TEMPS WILL DROP INTO THE MID 30S TONIGHT BUT WITH WARM AIR OVER RUNNING EXPECT ALL PCPN TO BE LIQUID. HIGHS ON THU WIL BE A REPEAT OF TODAY DUE TO SOUTHERLY WINDS... NOT SUNSHINE. HIGH TEMP ON FRID WILL OCCUR AT MIDNIGHT THU NIGHT WITH NEARLY CONSTANTLY FALLING TEMPS THRU THE DAY. MIGHT BE A PERIOD AROUND MIDDAY FRI WITH FLAT TEMPS OR AT MOST A DEG RISE... THEN DROPPING OFF AGAIN LATE FRI WITH FRI NITE LOWS IN THE UPPER TEENS. .LONG TERM.../SATURDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/...UPDATED STRONG BLOCKING RIDGE SOUTHEAST OF GREENLAND WILL KEEP THE LARGE AND NEGATIVELY TILTED CANADA VORTEX FROM CHANGING MUCH. NORTHWEST FLOW TO DOMINATE THIS PERIOD WITH COLD AIR AND MOSTLY CLOUDY CONDITIONS. KEPT TEMPERATURES SLIGHTLY BELOW MEX GUIDANCE. NORTHWEST FLOW WILL BE PERSISTANT AND A LACK OF A STRONG SHORTWAVE WILL PREVENT GULF MOISTURE FROM THREATENING THE AREA WITH HEAVY SNOW. BUT ENOUGH MOISTURE AND UPSLOPE WILL BE PRESENT TO KEEP CLOUDS AROUND. HIGHEST CHANCE OF SNOW WILL BE ON THE MOUNTAINS AT VA BORDER AND AT EASTERN KY CORNER (PIKE COUNTY) SO PUSHED SNOW CHANCES SOUTHEAST. THERE MIGHT BE SOME MOIST CONTRIBUTION FROM LAKE MI SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY BUT GFS/ECMWF/CANADIAN WAVER FROM RUN 2 RUN SO THAT A TRAJECTORY CANNOT BE PINNED DOWN WELL ENOUGH SO EARLY. SO FAR...BEST CHANCE OF THAT SEEMS TO BE MON/MON NIGHT BUT EVEN THEN IT WOULD BE AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS. && .AVIATION.../18Z TO 18Z/ A DEVELOPING STORM SYSTEM LOOKS TO BE PROGRESSING SLOWER THAN ANTICIPATED. CURRENT LOW LEVEL ATMOSPHERE IS MUCH DRIER AND WILL TAKE ADDITIONAL TIME TO MOISTEN. ALSO THE DEVELOPING SYSTEM IS FARTHER SOUTH THAN PREVIOUS FCST... SO SURGE OF GULF MOISTURE IS BEING SHUTTLED EAST OF THE AREA. WILL BRING LOWER CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION INTO THE REGION AFTER 00Z THURSDAY. THIS WILL BRING THE CHANCE FOR RAIN AND SOME MVFR CONDITIONS TO THE TERMINAL LOCATIONS AFTER 06Z. RAIN AND MVFR CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH AT LEAST 12Z THURSDAY. EXPECT THE CIG TO CONTINUE TO DETERIORATE AFTER DAYBREAK AND DROP TO IFR SHORTLY AFTER 12Z BUT WILL BE ALL RAIN. CAUTION SHOULD BE EXERCISED FOR POTENTIAL FOR ICING IN CLOUDS ABOVE ABOUT 3000 FT. && .JKL WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && SHORT TERM...DUSTY LONG TERM...GV AVIATION...DUSTY
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON KY 358 PM EST WED DEC 30 2009 KYZ044-050>052-058>060-068-069-079-080-083>088-104-106>120-010000- FLEMING-MONTGOMERY-BATH-ROWAN-ESTILL-POWELL-MENIFEE-ROCKCASTLE- JACKSON-PULASKI-LAUREL-WAYNE-MCCREARY-WHITLEY-KNOX-BELL-HARLAN- ELLIOTT-MORGAN-JOHNSON-WOLFE-MAGOFFIN-FLOYD-LEE-BREATHITT-KNOTT- OWSLEY-PERRY-CLAY-LESLIE-LETCHER-MARTIN-PIKE- 358 PM EST WED DEC 30 2009 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN KENTUCKY. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. RAIN SHOWERS THURSDAY ARE EXPECTED TO CHANGE OVER TO SNOW SHOWERS THURSDAY NIGHT...WITH LIGHT SNOW POSSIBLE INTO SATURDAY MORNING. SOME LIGHT SNOW ACCUMULATION WILL BE POSSIBLE FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT. VERY COLD AIR WILL BEGIN TO BUILD INTO THE REGION FRIDAY NIGHT WITH TEMPERATURES FALLING INTO THE TEENS BY SATURDAY MORNING. THIS COLD AIR WILL REMAIN OVER THE AREA THROUGH MUCH OF NEXT WEEK. HIGH TEMPERATURES SATURDAY THROUGH TUESDAY WILL FAIL TO REACH THE FREEZING MARK...WITH LOW TEMPERATURES EACH OF THESE DAYS EXPECTED TO BE IN THE TEENS. ALONG WITH THE COLD...A FEW SNOW SHOWERS ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS MOST OF THE OUTLOOK AREA MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. THE BEST CHANCE FOR ACCUMULATING SNOW WILL BE IN THE EASTERN MOUNTAIN COUNTIES. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. DUSTY
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
An inch of snow fell at the Jackson weather office between 7 pm on December 30th and 1 am on December 31st.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kentucky in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Kentucky, December 2009
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 201841.