Double dose weekend & severe weather Sunday night

The storm came, the storm left. It left us with almost exactly what the forecast was calling for. The one small change was that the leading edge of snow yesterday across the Northern Miami Valley fell as a little sleet and freezing rain as warm afternoon air in the upper atmosphere changed the precip type. The first line of precip was pretty light and then the real moisture kicked up and we had 1-3+" of snow with very light ice north of I-70, and under 1" of snow but 0.25-0.5" of ice to the south. Once again, the I-70 divide holds true...never been quite sure why, but that is time and time again the divide between snow and ice, or ice and rain. I have lived here over a quarter century and it always plays out that way.

Due to the snow and ice, we did cut-ins for Good Morning America this morning from 7AM-8AM and then from 9AM-11AM. We did a full hour on-air then from 8AM until 9AM. It was a lot of fun, but my voice was starting to go out by the end. Anyway, I am back in here now filling in for Chris Mulcahy to give him a day off since he was working for Jeff Booth, who had the week off for some vacation time. I never realized how quick I am with the graphics and forecast in the morning until I came back to weekends. I had everything done and now have time to write my blog and build a couple new graphics.

Well the snow and ice didn't go anywhere today unless you put salt on it...we will be cold again tonight with lows in the low mid teens. Tomorrow temperatures will climb through the day and evening ahead of our next system and by Sunday night into Monday morning our temps will be in the mid 40's so a decent amount of melting will take place. Sunday night strong to severe storms look to roll through the area with a lot of upper level atmospheric support. The timing, as of now, looks to be shortly after midnight Sunday night into Monday morning for the Ohio Valley. The main threat looks to be damaging winds and possible tornadic storms. The one up-side to the system is that it appears to weaken just before arriving to the Ohio Valley and most of the strongest weather will be to our southwest in Western Kentucky and Tennessee. It will need to be monitored very closely and I may have to come in a little earlier than normal Monday morning. Temperatures will fall behind the system and Tuesday we will top out in the mid-upper 30's. The rest of the week we will get back into the 40's, but the chance for rain is a little tricky. Right now there are a couple systems down the pike, but we seem to be sandwiched between them. On Thursday and Saturday we will have a system to our south and another system to our north on both of the days, but we may be dry between the two systems. The models are basically fighting between the polar and tropical jet stream and we are right between the two. I will keep you posted, but please make sure you keep your NOAA weather radio on for Sunday night in the event that severe weather breaks out.

Oh, if you live in or near the Mercer County, Ohio area you may be interested in this: The National Weather Service is having a (free) meeting this coming Thursday, January 26, at 6:30PM in Dicke Hall at the Wright State Lake Campus for CoCoRaHS recruitment. That stands for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network. The NWS needs ground reports of how much precip falls. The radar can give you an estimate, but the ground reports are what really help establish whether warnings or watches need to be issued based on the amount of precipitation. They will hook you up with a rain gauge and measuring board for snow, but most importantly, teach you how to measure the rain, hail, and snow properly. It would be a GREAT meeting to attend and is free. For more information check out the website they have set up: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/mercer_auglaize_cocorahs.php.

Stay safe on the snow & ice and I will see you back here Monday morning. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael