The National Weather Service in Paducah has predicted a “rather
intense but short duration snow event” for late tonight and
Wednesday morning.
A Winter Storm Watch from 9 p.m. this evening to noon Wednesday
has been issued for much of western Kentucky and far southern
Illinois, which is where the combination of highest precipitation and
coldest thermal profiles exist.
From two to five inches of snow are possible starting during the night
tonight. Snow will likely be mixed with sleet at times.
Today will be cold and quiet as high pressure slowly shifts eastward.
Extensive mid and high cloudiness will keep temps from rising out of
the 20s.
Light snow should develop as far southeast as the Ohio River this
evening, then intensify and spread across western Kentucky after
midnight. The snow should readily stick to paved surfaces due to
the recent cold weather. There will likely be a burst of moderate
to heavy snow lasting several hours late tonight. The models end the
accumulating snow rather abruptly early Wednesday.
The combination of snow cover, clouds, and light north winds will
keep temps nearly steady around 30 degrees on Wednesday. Although
most of the accumulating snow will end early in the morning, some
residual light precip may linger through midday.
Wednesday night through Monday
A second winter storm system will impact the area possibly as early
as late Wednesday night, but especially Thursday through Friday.
This storm system`s impact will be in part dependent on tonight`s
storm system.
This forecast will have a mixed bag of precipitation until Friday when
the entire area should see only snow as the system pulls out of the area.
Freezing rain would seem to be the biggest concern with the onset of
precipitation late Wednesday night into Thursday, then hopefully the entire
area will warm up enough for warm rain. There will be the potential for
several inches of snow in the deformation zone, which should be somewhere
across our forecast area Thursday night and Friday.
