Posted by Joe on Monday, Jan 22, at 9:30 am
Warmer temperatures are set to move into east-central Ohio beginning today (Monday), but the warmer temperatures will also bring increasing moisture. Most of this moisture will fall as rain across our area during the next several days. Before all of this gets underway, however, there can be a period of light freezing rain in the Valley early Tuesday morning.
The early morning model runs indicate precipitation moving into eastern Ohio before sunrise Tuesday. Temperatures aloft will be warm enough for rain. Temperatures closer to the surface, though, will still be at or near freezing. This is a classic recipe for freezing rain to occur.
LOCAL TIMING
Precipitation moves in after midnight tonight. Most of this early precipitation will evaporate before reaching the surface, but eventually, the air will become saturated enough for light rain to reach the ground by 3:00/4:00 am Tuesday.
There can be a period where we see a mixture of freezing rain and or sleet for a couple of hours in the morning. Surface temperatures will be the determining factor as to what types of precipitation occur at any given time or location. Some plain rain can mix in with this as well.
The highest potential for freezing rain occurring in the New Phila area looks to be from around 5:00 am to 9:00/10:00 am Tuesday. Precipitation will spread west to east. That means that areas around Sugarcreek, Baltic, Ragersville, Dundee, etc, will see freezing rain a bit earlier than shown below. By late morning/early afternoon temperatures at the surface will warm enough for this to become all rain.
LOCAL IMPACTS
Total ice accretion in our area will be fairly light – on the order of a couple of hundredths of an inch. This is not enough to cause problems with power lines and tree limbs but it can create a glaze of surface ice in some spots.
Elevated surfaces, walkways, your car and such will be more susceptible to freezing. Generally speaking, ice accretion of a tenth of an inch (0.1″) or more is when we start to see problems with power lines and trees.
One note of caution if you travel north, your odds of running more travel problems will increase as chances for heavier ice accretion increase as you go north.
The bottom line is that this does not look like a big deal in our area. There can certainly be some slick spots in the morning on elevated surfaces and such but issues with power lines and trees don’t appear to be an issue. You may need to be more aware of travel issues if you need to travel north and west of the Valley during the morning.
THE REST OF THE DAY TUESDAY
Once we get through the morning, temperatures locally will support just plain old scattered rain showers during the afternoon and evening.
Just be aware of potential slick spots as you head out in the morning. Updates will be posted here if and when any changes warrant. – Joe
