Our weather turns much quieter for Thursday with just a few snow flurries or light showers lingering through the morning. These will diminish as we go through the afternoon, but we’ll keep the clouds through the morning with a few breaks and some occasional sun this afternoon. Temperatures won’t do much better than the low 20s in most neighborhoods.
I’ve seen much discussion on area social media pages regarding the possibilities for snow showers on Friday. A weak warm front will push north into Ohio late tonight into early Friday morning. This is a much different system than we had on Wednesday and will not bring much in the way of snow the the Tuscarawas Valley area.
As a southern flow sets up early Friday morning to push the boundary northward through east-central Ohio, we may see some snow during the morning hours on Friday it shouldn’t amount to much here in the Valley. Sure, some spots might see a coating to an inch, but nothing really significant.
And, it should not be enough snow to make any impacts on the Friday morning commute HERE. There will be more snow with this north of the Tuscarawas Valley so if you drive north into Stark County or farther, you’ll run into increasingly more snow to deal with.
The boundary pushes farther north as we approach lunch time and any snow showers will change over to rain as the warmer air moves in behind the front. Significant snow with this system will stay well north of the the Valley. Temperatures Friday will warm to the upper 30s to around 40 in most spots Friday afternoon.
VARIABLE WEEKEND FORECAST
I always try to give you the best forecast I can give and sometimes things just aren’t that black and white when it comes to east-central Ohio weather. This weekend is one of those times where several variables will make it difficult to nail down precipitation types and times.
Our Friday warm front will get hung up somewhere over the northern half of Ohio during the day Saturday. With colder air to the north of the boundary and warmer air to the south, it will depend on how the boundary meanders around that will make the difference in precipitation types at any given time. I believe that rain will be the dominate p-type for Saturday in the Tuscarawas Valley with our area staying in the warm sector of the front.
Temperatures on Saturday could warm into the low 40s.
By Sunday this whole system starts to shift east and again, depending on where the warm air / cold air boundaries set up, this might bring some mixed wintry precip to the region. Any sleet/rain/snow/etc. should be light so, while it looks like a miserable day, I don’t believe precipitation of any one type will be heavy enough to case any significant travel problems through the day.
We will just need to keep an eye on this and future model runs to see if any significant signals show up for freezing rain and such, but in all honesty, I think it’s just going to be a day of mixed p-types.
By Sunday night the system should push east of the Valley and any precipitation will change over to snow on the backside. Again, any snow should be light and I’m not counting on any accumulation for the Valley. Just some light showers.
NEXT WEEK
Dryer air will push in Sunday night and Monday and I think we’ll get into a nice day with some sunshine. Temperatures will be a bit cooler and more in line with averages, but a nice day none the less.
Our next weather system will approach from the southwest on Tuesday and again we’ll get back into a pattern where we may be looking at some mixed precipitation for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Some good news is showing up in the mid range climate modeling in the form of moderating temperatures setting up for the second half of February.
For those of us who are getting tired or the snow and freezing cold temperatures, this is a welcome sight. Let’s just hope that the models have a decent handle on this trend.
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Have a great – and SAFE – weekend.
