Eastern Kentucky is expected to get a brief reprieve from rain, snow, and ice. The forecast calls for sunny skies Friday through Monday, with some high temperatures reaching near 50 degrees.
Alex Vorst, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson, said the region’s reprieve from below-freezing temperatures may be brief.
“It’s still February. We can still get these strong, cold fronts that’ll come through and bring big temperature fluctuations where we're kind of looking at a period of three or four days or whatever that will bring cold air,” said Vorst.
Another cold front could hit Eastern Kentucky as early as next Tuesday. Officials said these fronts will bring major temperature swings and the possibility of snow and ice throughout the duration of February.
Vorst added weather on the scale of what impacted Pike County is unlikely to happen again this month.
“The thing with the Pikeville and Hazard and other areas down there is we were several days of rain leading up to a day where we had significant rainfall, and that all kind of combined together to create, what we saw down there,” said Vorst.
Vorst added these major temperature shifts routinely lessen as spring approaches, but people should remain prepared for fluctuations as the season transitions. The NWS provides local forecasts at weather.gov.