Power Outages, Whiteouts and Life Threatening Cold Expected..

A plethora of winter weather watches, warnings and advisories have been issued for the Central and Eastern US ahead of a dangerous and disruptive winter storm set to bring widespread blizzard conditions and life threatening cold for many across the Northern Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes as we head into Christmas Weekend.

The latest medium range weather models continue to project the development of a "bomb cyclone" late Thursday through Friday across portions of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes.

The EURO (shown above) is predicting a 1008 mb low to emerge along an Arctic Cold Front across Indiana Thursday afternoon before it rapidly deepens to 968 mb over Southern Quebec Friday afternoon. This would be a 40 mb drop in pressure on only 24 hours which is quite remarkable. For reference, a "bomb cyclone" is defined as a low pressure that drops 24 mb in 24 hours which is a rarity unto itself, so this would be something closer to a "super bomb".

The rapid drop in pressure will direct an Arctic Air Mass from the Plains directly through the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley in just a few short hours Thursday night/early Friday.

Taking a close look at Southern Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, you can see the affect of the passage of the Arctic Front which will be accompanied by widespread 40 to 50 mph wind gusts. This will result in an ASTONISHING drop in temperature and particularly, the "apparent temperature" where wind chill values, according to the EURO are expected to go from 43° F in Louisville, KY late afternoon on Thursday to a bone chilling -24° F by early Friday morning.

That will translate to a 67° F DROP in less than 12 hours. YIKES!!!

In addition to the extreme drop in temps and high winds, snowfall looks to exacerbate the situation for much of the region. While individual totals look to remain manageable across the Ohio Valley, when you combine with the wind and plummeting temps, it will create downright treacherous conditions at times with whiteouts and widespread blizzard conditions at times.

The latest EURO data has increased snow totals to the 3-6" category across parts of Western Kentucky, Southern Indiana and into Portions of Ohio where travel may become very difficult with the worst of the weather arriving over a short period late Thursday evening and Thursday night. To the south, lesser totals on the order of 1-3" appears likely across Southern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee.

The heaviest totals of up to a foot or more, look to remain confined to areas downwind of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Huron through the day on Friday.

While this will create a "White Christmas" for many across the region, it's hard to understate the danger associated with travel during the passage of this storm and also the life threatening cold that will come in immediately behind it. Be sure to take all necessary precautions now before it arrives late Thursday/Thursday night.

I'll be hosting a LIVE UPDATE on the situation starting at 9 PM ET tonight via FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE & RUMBLE.

See you in a bit.

-Jeremy Kappell

Meteorologist, Speaker, Talk Show Host, Blogger and American Patriot