Occasional showers today before a GORGEOUS Christmas Eve!

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Saturday is starting off wet across the WBKO viewing area with scattered some scattered showers! We’ll see some scattered rain through this afternoon before we eventually dry out by later this evening.

How about this for a Christmas Eve forecast??? If we can’t have a white Christmas- it might as well be comfy outside! Highs will reach into the upper 60s, that’s 20° above normal for this time of year. Skies will remain mostly clear for the morning hours before clouds start to filter in by the afternoon ahead of a moisture surge that will accompany Santa into the early hours of Christmas Day.

We have been expecting a wet Christmas, and it continues to shape up as we close in on the day. Highs will be a touch cooler in the lower 60s, but still well above average. Moderate-to-heavy rain is expected in the morning hours, with some more rain developing in the afternoon and evening hours. Some of the showers could contain some rumbles of thunder and gusty winds. We’re still not expecting any severe weather as we head into Christmas Day, but some gusts could be enough to knock over some outdoor decorations- make sure they are adequately secured before Monday rolls around!

Looking Beyond

Temperatures will gradually dwindle as we approach the new year with highs retreating to near-normal for this time of year (around 45°). Cooler temperatures are signaling as we head into the new year as well, with some of us expecting cooler-than-normal temperatures for parts of early January.

Coupled with the possibility of normal and cooler-than-average temperatures, precipitation as we roll into the beginning of the year is expected to be below average.

For 2023, we are over 8″ under our average precipitation for the year and we’re not expecting to fill that gap in the last few days of the year. The beginning of the year will continue our drying trend, which is usual for our region when an El Niño is occurring, but not ideal for our ongoing drought in the area.

Looking at the current drought map, nearly all areas across the WBKO viewing area are under some kind of drought condition! The eastern portion of our region is in the most dire need of some precip, as they’ve slipped into severe drought conditions. Unfortunately, we’ll need to see a few decent precipitation events (rain or snow) to reverse this, and neither are in the long-term forecast.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve and a Happy Festivus to all who observe!