The Miami Valley will see two rounds of wintry precipitation Thursday with freezing rain, sleet, and snow which could make for some slippery travel conditions, especially Thursday night into Friday.
TIMING:
Two rounds of precipitation look likely across the Miami Valley come Thursday.
Round one moves through during the early morning hours of Thursday. The first round of precipitation will come as scattered, mainly light snow and sleet showers with minimal accumulations.
A lull in precipitation is likely during the middle part of the day before a more substantial round of wintry precipitation moves through from late Thursday afternoon through early Friday morning. The second round of precipitation will likely bring a wintry mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain to the area.
TYPES OF PRECIPITATION:
The Thursday morning precipitation looks to come as scattered, light snow and sleet showers.
“It’s a bit more challenging to pin down the Thursday evening and overnight precipitation types,” said Storm Center 7 Meteorologist Austin Chaney. “The trend in the forecast over the last 24 hours has been slightly warmer. This means more mixed precipitation further north, and the greatest potential for freezing rain specifically being shifted further north.”
In general on Thursday night, expect more snow and sleet over the far northern Miami Valley, then a mix of sleet and freezing rain for just about everybody north of I-70. Then a mix of Freezing rain, sleet, and regular rain south of I-70.
EXPECTED SNOWFALL:
- Celina to Wapakoneta line: 1-2″
- Winchester, to Sidney to Bellefontaine, less than 1″
- South of Greenville to Urbana; Trace
Sleet will mix in with snow
The wintry mix of sleet, freezing rain, and snow will make measuring the snowfall difficult.
EXPECTED ICE ACCUMULATION:
- Much of the Miami Valley, especially north of I-70 could see .1″ to .2″
- There may be a band of ice up to .25″ from Lewisburg, to Troy, to Urbana
- Lighter amounts of a glaze to .1 from Celina to Wapakoneta
- Also, a glaze to .1″ for Oxford, to Springboro, to Xenia, and Wilmington.
RAIN ACCUMULATION EXPECTED THURSDAY-FRIDAY MORNING:
- Dayton and south, 0.50″ TO 0.75″
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Thursday through Friday morning will bring the chance of rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow to the area. Despite the warm temperatures to begin the week, this precipitation has the chance to accumulate and could create some travel difficulties Thursday into Friday.
The exact placement of the icing and snowfall accumulation could still shift around a bit, so it will be important to stay aware of the forecast leading up to Thursday evening and Thursday night.
Our Storm Center 7 Team of Meteorologists will continue to track and monitor the upcoming storm system. This story will be updated throughout the week as the weather event gets closer.