Best Shot At Winter Weather This Season

No history today, no stories of yore or my travels. We’ve got weather to talk about. First shot at good looking snow potential this season. We were looking for a mix of precipitation for Monday afternoon. Well, its still a mix but its much broader in scale and scope….meaning a bigger mess.

It’s rather interesting but its really a similar set up as the past two Tuesdays when we had an area of low pressure moving up from the Southwest almost right over the top of us. Two weeks ago, it resulting in widespread strong winds with an isolated tornado. Last week there were numerous tornadic thunderstorms. The difference this time is that we have cold air in place that will stay there…no big warm up. So this time, we start as snow Monday afternoon…and stay that way for much of the evening. The two maps above are two different computer models idea of what will happen as of Sunday evening. On the top one, the yellow indicates up to 4 inches of snow. The bottom one has a gray slab nosing in over us. That represents six inches. At this time, I’m going with two to four with isolated higher amounts.

Here’s the rub though…as the low moves up, the mixed bag begins. Just prior to midnight, we change to sleet. A few hours later we turn to freezing rain. Ice accumulations may be up to 1/2 inch. If there’s one type of weather I don’t want, its freezing rain. Let’s hope the wires and trees hold up. Good news is that we turn to rain at or just after sunrise so ice may not be on long enough to cause too many problems. We get a cold rain for much of Tuesday before it ends Tuesday afternoon, perhaps as a few light, insignificant snow showers.

Bottom line is this. Monday evening rush hour will be difficult. Tuesday morning looks tough too. Plan ahead. As of Sunday evening, there is a Winter Storm Watch for our viewing area from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning. I suspect that will be changed.

I’d stay tuned to Newschannel 32 for updates as we get closer to the event. We’ll be able to nail down the snow and ice amounts. I’m sure the weather service will also be updating watches or issuing warnings too.