Winter watch goes into effect Friday, with significant snowfall expected over the weekend

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Jan. 22, 2026) - Ahead of severe winter weather beginning late Friday night and continuing through Sunday, Gov. Andy Beshear today announced proactive steps being taken by Team Kentucky to treat roadways, create shelter options and warming centers, and more. The National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts show statewide impacts, with snow accumulations of as much as 8 inches and the possibility of sleet and ice. Dangerously cold temperatures are expected to continue into next week.

"Kentucky, we are facing some severe winter weather this weekend, and we are doing everything possible to prepare ahead and have options in place to keep Kentuckians safe," said Gov. Beshear. "We are asking everyone to take this winter weather event seriously by having weather alerts turned on and phones charged and by avoiding travel if possible. Let's do whatever we can to keep our people safe this weekend."

In preparation of the weather event, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), Kentucky State Parks and Kentucky Emergency Management (KYEM) are implementing steps to treat roadways and offer assistance to Kentuckians as needed.

KYTC Snowfighters
Preliminary transportation activities now taking place throughout the state include:

• Road crews pretreating roadways across districts, as conditions allow.
• KYTC communicating with partner agencies regarding potential resource requests.
• KYTC Division of Equipment is actively taking inventory of resources, including heavy equipment, to make sure they're ready and available.
• All highway districts actively preparing equipment.
• KYTC communicating and coordinating with the Tennessee Department of Transportation in case either state should experience closures of interstate corridors in order to place messages on overhead message signs alerting the travelling public.
• KYTC maintaining most roads, streets and bridges that are part of the state highway system, including interstates, parkways and U.S. route designations. The cabinet operates on a four-tier priority system to keep people and commerce moving in the most effective way possible.

Kentuckians are encouraged to avoid unnecessary travel and to check snowky.ky.gov for road conditions. For more information, read the full press release from KYTC.

Kentucky State Parks
Kentucky State Parks are actively preparing for the winter storm and have designated resort and recreational parks as warming stations. In the event of power outages, state parks are ready to provide temporary shelter to those in need. To assist Kentuckians in locating available warming stations, the Department of Parks has created a webpage with real-time updates at parks.ky.gov/inclement-weather.

The following locations are serving as warming stations:

• Convention Center at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park (Prestonsburg)
• Visitor Center at My Old Kentucky Home State Park (Bardstown)
• Convention Center at General Butler State Resort Park (Carrollton)
• Sawyer Hayes Convention Center at EP Tom Sawyer State Park (Louisville)
• Convention Center at Columbus Belmont State Park (Columbus)
• Woodland Center at Natural Bridge State Resort Park (Slade)
• Barren River Lake State Resort Park (Lucas)
• Carter Caves State Resort Park (Olive Hill)
• Greenbo Lake State Resort Park (Greenup)
• Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park (Carlisle)

Kentucky State Parks urges anyone traveling to our state parks to exercise caution, as park conditions may also be impacted by the inclement weather.

Kentucky Emergency Management
The Emergency Operations Center will activate at a Level 3 (KYEM staff and certain ESF partners) at 7 a.m. Saturday.

KYEM is pre-positioning water in anticipation of water system failures and working with counties to update warming center locations and assist with any needs they may have.

For a list of shelter and warming centers across the state, visit the online map.

For preparedness tips, visit kyem.ky.gov.

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