KY Residents Remember A Historically Cold Winter As Snowstorm Approaches

Here in Kentucky, the race is on for bread and milk. A developing winter storm- Winter Storm Fern- is taking aim on much of the state and we're bracing for the possibility of major impacts caused by potentially heavy snow and significant ice.

READ MORE: National Weather Service Gives Update on Approaching Winter Storm in Kentucky

The snowstorm is going to be accompanied by some brutally frigid temperatures as well. Forecasters are calling for single-digit lows over the weekend and lows near zero on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

I don't mind the idea of snow as much as I mind the idea of cold. Our latest forecast made me wonder this. What's the coldest it's ever gotten here in Kentucky? What's the lowest temperature we've ever had?

So, I did some digging and got the definitive answer from the experts at the National Weather Service Office in Louisville.

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THE COLDEST TEMPERATURE EVER IN KENTUCKY

Coincidentally, I lived in Louisville the year that low temperature was recorded in a nearby city. It was back in 1994. I will never forget it. Some friends of mine and I had made plans to go snow skiing at Paoli Peaks. When I went to bed that night, I had no idea our trip was going to be canceled by an insane, unexpected amount of snow. I woke up to nearly 16 inches of it.

Needless to say, my friends and I didn't make it to Paoli that day. Heck, I lived at River Oak Apartments on top of a hill off Mellwood Avenue near downtown Louisville. I could have just skied down the driveway to the complex.

As crippling as that particular snow was for a few days, it was the Arctic cold that blew in behind it that ultimately paralyzed us. The snow fell January 16th and 17th. By the 19th, our temperatures had plummeted below zero. All that snow that fell in Louisville didn't go anywhere. It was minus 22 degrees. There was nowhere for it to go.

But, as cold as it was in Louisville, that didn't even come close to the low in Shelbyville, roughly thirty miles away. There, where they had gotten 23 inches of snow, it fell to minus 37 degrees, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

While we're not quite sure what's going to hit us this weekend when Winter Storm Fern finally makes it to the Bluegrass State, no one's going to forget that historic snow and Arctic cold event over 30 years ago.

I think I can safely speak for the residents of all the cities and towns above. Ain't nobody got time for that again.