A touch of snow is possible tonight with a weak system passing to our south. A stronger storm system is expected to generate more widespread, and heavier snow on Sunday.
High pressure will provide for a mostly sunny day across the Valley although it will be chilly compared to yesterday’s 50°. Afternoon temperatures today will only get to around the mid-30s.
A little disturbance will slide across the Ohio Valley this evening and that will bring odds for snow and mixed precipitation mainly along and south of I-70 tonight. I’ve included just a slight chance that a few snowflakes would just brush southern portions of the Valley. If snow would creep into the area it wouldn’t amount to much more than a dusting to maybe a half inch.
Snow or not, the little system will be east of the area by early Friday morning as weak high pressure returns to bring a dry day on Friday. Warmer air will move in ahead of a weak disturbance due to cross on Saturday. Although the odds are fairly slim, that little bump could bring a few spotty light rain showers to the Valley Saturday afternoon. Expect a couple of warmer days tomorrow and Saturday with afternoon temperatures in the low to mid 40° range which is actually about normal for us for early March.
SUNDAY’S WINTER STORM POTENTIAL
There remains much disagreement among the models regarding Sunday’s large scale winter storm system. But, as we would expect, things are beginning to come together regarding local impacts. The main area of contention is the placement and strength of an upper-level low currently off the west coast. Until this upper-level system reaches land – probably late Friday – it will be tough to make a reasonable Sunday snow forecast.
That being said, a storm system will move through the Tennessee Valley and Appalachians on Sunday. It will interact with the upper-level low mentioned earlier. The setup will keep the east-central Ohio region in the cold part of the system and will likely spread snow showers into the Valley on Sunday. How much snow remains elusive but it is beginning to look that snow amounts will be impactful here.
The good news is that a trend in modeling is toward agreement and that means I hope to have some preliminary snow numbers soon – either late today or tomorrow morning.
One factor does look pretty certain, though. This storm will be a quick-hitter lasting only through Sunday. It won’t linger on for days.
What is a given is the colder air that will move in with a cold front Saturday night. Near-average temperatures on Saturday will drop back to the low 30s for daytime highs on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday will be even colder – maybe 20° on Monday, upper teens on Tuesday. Nighttime low will dip to single digits!
These projections from the NWS, should they pan out, would be 15° to 20° below normal for early March here!
Stay with TuscWeather the next few days while the weekend storm continues to evolve. We should start to see local snow amounts and how this will impact the Valley over the next 24 hours.
