Winter Weather Advisory overnight for wintry precip. & slippery weather

**** WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT THIS EVENING THRU THURSDAY MORNING ****

This advisory is in effect for mainly along and north of I-70 counties this evening, not including Franklin County at this time. The main concern for this area is going to be freezing rain which could amount to a 1/10″ upwards to 1/5″ by morning north. Also there is a threat of some snow mixed in north in the advisory area overnight as colder air works in.

QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:

Tonight: Rain, freezing rain north, wintry mix north of I-70, low 34

Thursday: Light wintry mix north, rain showers, high 40

Friday: Snow showers, light accumulations, high 34

Saturday: Mostly cloudy, isolated late shower/snow showers, high 38

Sunday: Mixed clouds, high 42

FORECAST DISCUSSION:

Good Wednesday Evening,

We are watching as another shot of moisture is moving up into our area this evening. Temps have been fairly typical for early February with highs near the upper 30s in the city, but numbers have been closer to freezing in our northwest (Hardin, Logan counties). This will make for a complex forecast this evening.

As noted above, we have a winter weather advisory in effect from this evening, and through Thursday morning mainly along and north of I-70, but not including Franklin county at this time. This is because the colder temps as the surface will have some warmer air riding on top of this, and will combine to give us chilly liquid falling onto a surface that will be dropping to freezing or below this evening and overnight.

It appears the highest concentration of precip. will fall before midnight tonight, but will continue to thin a bit overnight. As colder air attempts to work south, this might chill the layer enough to give us light snow to the north overnight later.

For Columbus it does appear that temps that have been above freezing most of the day, with the exception of a small 3 hour window today should provide us with warm enough road surfaces that thing will remain wet. In fact, temps will fall in to around 34 by midnight and will slowly rise back to around 35 by daybreak and remain above freezing overnight.

During the day on Thursday cold rain showers will be the story with light freezing drizzle north early, and then the system will push to the east and drive in slightly colder air later. This will give us snow showers by Thursday night, and into the morning hours on Friday with colder air.

Temps on Friday will only climb into the middle 30s at best, and we could see some minor accumulations of snowfall in grassy surfaces, with some slightly better accumulating snow north including on less traveled/untreated road surfaces.

Temps will remain seasonal for Saturday with highs in the upper 30s with a slight chance of a shower or snow shower late in the day but should not add any accumulations. Sunday will see mixed clouds and temps back into the lower 40s.

Rain will return Sunday night and into Monday with highs in the middle 40s. A lazy frontal boundary will hang around the area early next week, keeping temps in the lower to middle 40s and rain in the forecast for the first half of the week.

-Dave