Winter Storm Battering Flood Ravaged Kentucky As Nation's Intense Winter Weather Continues.

 Kentucky just can't catch a break.

Flooding with snow on the ground in
Kentucky on Sunday. A winter storm
is dumping several inches of
additional snow on the flood-
ravaged state this morning. 

The death toll from this past weekend's flooding in the state has risen to 14. An additional three people died from the flooding in adjacent West Virginia. 

The flooding hit all of Kentucky, from near the Mississippi River in the west to the Appalachians in the east.

The flooding prompted something like 1,000 water rescues, and at least 300 roads were shut down by the high water.  

The flash flooding from the weekend is over, but some rivers haven't crested quite yet. Moderate and sometimes major flooding was still going on along at least three Kentucky rivers as of early Tuesday morning. 

Now, a winter storm is about to hit Kentucky, with two to six inches of snow falling on the flood zones tonight and Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to fall into the single numbers Wednesday and Thursday nights

This weather misery comes as Kentucky has endured other outsized disasters in recent years. 

In December, 2021, a swarm of tornadoes in Kentucky killed more than 80 people and left trails of destruction behind. 

An enormous Kentucky flash flood in July 2022, left 45 people dead and left widespread destruction. 

Now this.  

It's hard enough to start digging out from a flood in warm weather. Imagine trying to do it while temperatures are well below zero and there's a few inches of snow on the ground. The mud freezes into a hard concrete, so you can't shovel it away. Wet items that need to be removed from wrecked buildings are frozen together. 

People trying to deal with all the wet, destroyed property are especially prone to hypothermia and frostbite. 

It's really a tough week in Kentucky,

The rough late season winter blast isn't just affecting Kentucky. Winter storm warnings extend to the Carolina and Virginia coastlines, where five to nine inches of snow is forecast.

Extreme cold warnings and advisories extend from Montana and North Dakota all the way down to the Gulf Coast.

Minot, North Dakota was enjoying a comparatively mild morning today as it got down to 23 below.  It was 33 below there Tuesday morning and 30 below Monday.  Those are actual temperatures, not wind chill. 

The frigid temperatures and snowstorms are forecast to at least temporarily relax over the next few days, giving some places, mostly areas west of the Mississippi River an early taste of spring next week.

VERMONT EFFECTS

For once, a storm is going to miss us completely. First time that's happened all month\

The winter storm that's been hitting from the Midwest to North Carolina and Virginia is going to eventually evolve into a pretty substantial nor'easter. But it will be far, far off the coast, passing about a couple hundred miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Instead, it'll stay very cold today and to extent tomorrow before a slow warming trend arrives. A weak disturbance could put down a dusting to two inches of snow Thursday, but nothing big for a change. 

We will still probably get into a brief warm-ish spell Sunday through to the middle of next week, where valleys should get above freezing daily, maybe even 40 degrees in the banana belt towns. 

But this does not herald spring.  The overall trend is for colder than average weather well into March, at least as it looks now.