Monday, March 2, 2015

Flooding, 'significant' snowfall in forecast

Possible flooding on Tuesday is to be followed by potentially "significant" snowfall on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Paducah.

Locally heavy rain and a chance of thunderstorms are forecast Tuesday into Tuesday night, with the heaviest rain forecast to fall along and south of the Ohio River. Some flooding issues may result from the combination of snow melt and the heavy rains, especially where thunderstorms occur, reads an NWS hazardous weather outlook bulletin. Severe weather is not expected, however.

The rain is then forecast to change to sleet and eventually snow on Wednesday into Wednesday night as much colder air rushes in behind a strong cold front. Temperatures will rapidly drop below freezing early Wednesday. While far from certain, moderate to heavy snow accumulations are possible across all or part of the quad-state region.

By noon Wednesday, precipitation should be in the form of snow across all but southern portions of western Kentucky, where the transition from sleet to snow may not occur until afternoon. The snow is forecast to taper off from northwest to southeast Wednesday night.