Tuesday, January 27, 2009

1/27 - 6am - What a Mess!

Good morning! Since JCPS is closed, I thought that I'd post an early morning update.

First off, don't drive if you don't have to today. Snow and sleet totals around the area are in the 2-3" range around town and we are far from finished. We got mostly sleet in the Metro, but that mixed with the snow is making for a nasty layer of gunk on the roads.

Temperatures at 850mb (5000 feet) are going to rise today, changing our sleet and snow to freezing rain. I'll be blunt: We are going to see a major ice storm tonight with this changeover. This is the kind of precipitation that knocks out power and downs trees. Temperatures today will most likely stay just below freezing, so don't expect things to get much better before we descend into part 2 of this storm. Temperatures at 850mb will cool later tonight, which should change the freezing rain to snow. Expect another 2 inches of snow by Wednesday morning once this happens.

I've been watching the local morning news shows and the live shots they're broadcasting from the interstates are quite interesting. I didn't think the interstates would get that bad this morning, so please be careful if you have to be on the roads.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

SNOW DAY! Your forecast was pretty spot on. Nice job.

Ryan Hoke said...

Thanks! I'm glad that I could help out!

Charles Loring said...

Nice forecast Ryan! We had .25" of ice this morning which was about what I thought we would see (I'm out of school too!). But we do have the chance at 1-3" of snow tonight so that has me excited!

Anonymous said...

how much snow do you think is possible tonight ryan? JB said that tonight would be possibly our biggest accumulation

Ryan Hoke said...

I've been looking at this and concern is growing as the models are in agreement about this at the moment. It looks like we could pick up a quick 3-6" tonight, but keep up with the blog today in case this changes. I know I said 2 inches this morning, but I just now got to look at all the new data. This afternoon's ice storm on its way from Arkansas and Missouri right now. Be careful out there!

Anonymous said...

Now is that 3-6" of ice or snow. I'll be monitoring this one closely.

Ryan Hoke said...

3-6" of snow. The 850mb 0 degree line will be south of here early tomorrow morning when the bulk of the precipitation falls. The ice will stick around until 1 or 2am. Snow will start just a couple hours or so after that ends.