Thursday's update for Friday/Saturday's snow

Staying partly cloudy today and a "milder" afternoon. Increasing clouds tonight and staying dry tonight and early Friday.

Still tracking a major winter storm for the Midwest and East Coast Friday and early Saturday. A few of the models are still bouncing around on the track, so be sure to get the latest forecast Friday morning when we can really nail down the snowfall forecast, but as of now, Central Ohio will be on the far Northern edge of the system. Above is the watches/warnings so far for Friday and Saturday.

Here is a screen shot of the mapped out forecast that we are going with this morning... BUT I am a little curious to see how the models pan out today and tonight.

Here is a little more of a zoomed in look at our official forecast, as of Thursday morning.  Again... this may change tonight and tomorrow before it arrives.

Our in-house model, the RPM, did a northerly shift this morning.  That is the image above. PLEASE take it with a grain of salt, because it is the only one out of the five models that shifted more North since yesterday.  As you may see there is a little bit of a difference, but I just wanted to highlight the fact that this storm is not nailed down just yet. There will be a sharp cut off from little to no snow in Central Ohio to the heavy snow in Southern Ohio and Kentucky. The heaviest snow for the storm is still looking to track from Kentucky through West Virginia, Virginia and up into Maryland.

Timing: The snow will arrive midday Friday for the Southern Ohio and arrive in to metro around the evening commute. Snow will wrap up around daybreak for Columbus on Saturday, but snow still expected for Southern Ohio through Saturday. Northern Ohio will not see much snow from this system. Most of Central Ohio could see up to 2". Southern and Eastern Ohio will see the most snow with Pike and Athens County potentially seeing 6"+. Again, please check back in Friday morning for an update. Dry late Saturday and Sunday then a winter mix early next week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael