Forecast highs this week include 70 on Thursday, 73 on Friday and 74 on Saturday. Friday's high would be a record-breaker, and Saturday will challenge the 83-year-old mark of 76.
Paducah's average high on Christmas Day is 44 degrees.
Numbers crunched by the National Weather Service in Paducah shows that in 87 years of record keeping, we've only had three Christmas Days with a high in the 70s. Those all occurred recently: in 2021 when we 74 degrees; 71 in 2016; and 70 in 2019. In fact there have only been five other years with highs in the 60s.
Not that there haven't been some frigid Christmas Days recently, including a high of just 23 in 2022 and 25 in 2020. The all-time coldest Christmas in Paducah was a high of just 12 in 1983 when that Cabbage Patch Kid was under the tree.
Some very warm overnight lows may also go into the record books this week. Christmas morning's forecast low of 59 should easily smash Paducah's current mark of 51 as the warmest low for the date, set in 2015. Friday and Saturday morning will also approach record levels for warmth near 60, far above the normal low of 27 for the week in Paducah.
We won't have to worry about challenging the record cold lows of -8 set in 2004, and -5 in 1983.
There are also no concerns for snow or even rain this Christmas. Paducah's snowiest holiday was when 4 inches fell in 1969, and the rainiest was 3.78 inches in 1987. The past two Christmases have seen some rainfall, but there has only been a trace of snow most recently in 2017, 2012 and 2010.
Paducah averages a "white Christmas" (one inch on the ground on Christmas morning) only about one in every eleven holidays. In 2022 there was already 2 inches on the ground, but none fell on Christmas Day; in 2010 there were 3 inches on the ground when an additional trace fell on Christmas.
Paducah's "whitest" Christmas was in 2004, when we woke up to 9 inches of snow on the ground.
Fans of colder holiday weather will have to wait until Sunday, when 20-mph northwest gusts pull us down to 50, then a high of only 31 forecast for Monday.
On the Net:
NWS Paducah's Christmas climate page
