The National Weather Service has upgraded the weekend weather to a Winter Storm Warning, effective at Midnight Friday and continuing through Sunday night at 6:00, with snowfall totals expected to be the highest in 11 years.
National Weather Service meteorologist Rachel Trevino says it’s no longer a question of whether it snows, but rather when and how much.
click to download audioTrevino says there is a 90% chance of the area receiving 4 or more inches, an 80% chance of 6 or more inches, and a 65% chance of 8 or more inches. At the extreme level, she says there is a 16-20% chance of a foot of snow.
She says the heaviest snowfall will happen Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening with a line of sleet and freezing rain affecting those along and south of a line from Murray to Greenville.
Trevino adds that there could be a significant travel impact due to the snow.
click to download audioThis is expected to be the largest snow event for the area since March 5, 2015, when Crofton and Cadiz both reported 15 inches of snow in a single day, according to the National Weather Service.
Weather records also show 9 instances of 10 or more inches of snow falling in a 24-hour period. Also in 2015, 12 inches of snow fell on February 16.
While not recognized by the National Weather Service, local records and news accounts detail 21 inches of snow falling on February 2, 1886.
A cold weather advisory will also take effect Friday night at 6:00 and continue through 6:00 Sunday night, with temperatures expected in the single digits at night this weekend, with wind chills below zero Sunday night and Monday night.
The low Saturday morning is expected to drop to 12 degrees, with a wind chill of 2 degrees below zero, while the low temperatures Monday and Tuesday morning could hover around zero, with a wind chill of 8 to 10 degrees below zero.
The last time the Trigg County Mesonet site recorded a low temperature below zero was December 23, 2022, when the low was 4 degrees below. The last time we saw multiple below-zero temperatures in the same month was February of 2015, when the low was six below on February 17th and 15 below zero on February 19th.
