A soaking rain continues this morning across the Valley. And, no surprise, this looks pretty much like our fate through the rest of the day. Generally speaking, we’ve received anywhere from a half an inch to an inch of rain over the last 24 hours. Of course, the amount in your neighborhood varies. Here are some of the unofficial rain totals as collected from personal weather stations reporting in this morning:
Moisture will continue to pump in from the Gulf region today to keep steady rain going through the day. Rainfall may be moderately heavy at times in some locations. With all of this moisture available, we may see another half to one inch of rain before this system exits the region tonight. The rain plus snowmelt will bring the potential for flooding and a Flood Watch remains in effect until 1:00 AM Wednesday for the entire region.
Rising temperatures today coupled with a moist atmosphere and leftover snow will result in foggy areas across the Valley.
But wait, that’s not all. As strong low pressure crosses the Great Lakes region today it will drag a cold front across east-central Ohio this evening. Gusty winds will pick up this afternoon as the front approaches. Windy conditions will stick around tonight through Wednesday. Gusts as high as 30 MPH will be possible at times.
As the rain exits and temperatures quickly drop behind the front, rain will change over to snow. Spotty snow showers and gusty wind are likely later this evening and continue into Wednesday morning. I would expect local snow accumulations to run around an inch or so.
With the snow showers and gusty wind tonight, blowing snow might bring visibility issues if you have to be out on the road. Visibility can quickly change in any snow showers that happen tonight.
Snow showers Wednesday morning should taper off and end by the afternoon as high pressure pushes our storm off to the east. Dry conditions should then continue through the daylight hours on Thursday with warming temperatures ahead of our next system.
LATE WEEK AND THE WEEKEND
Models diverge a bit at the beginning of the extended forecast, with the GFS and ECMWF showing different speeds for the track of our next storm system moving through. There was still enough agreement to keep likely precipitation in the forecast late Thursday night into Friday, though.
Showers should linger into Friday night and Saturday, but dry weather should move in for Saturday night and Sunday. Another system begins to approach the region late Monday, but should be late enough in the day to prevent much of a daytime snow threat.
Warm temperatures during the latter part of the work week will likely become more in line with average over the weekend.
