MANSFIELD – Though Richland County awoke Friday morning to only rain, Richland County Emergency Management Agency deputy director Rick Evans warns people to be not be deceived.
While Thursday provided false hope with temperatures topping 60 degrees, Evans says winter promises to make a cold comeback this weekend with up to a tenth of an inch of ice from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 6 inches of snow beginning in the late afternoon.
Evans encourages drivers to be especially cautious this afternoon and evening, as pretreating the roads isn’t possible.
“Salt will go down after the freezing starts,” he said. “We can’t really pretreat because of the rain right now.”
Initially, 6 to 12 inches of snow was expected to fall between Friday and Saturday, but more recent reports anticipate 3 to 6 inches instead. This will begin at 4 or 5 p.m. and continue into early Saturday morning.
Saturday, the snow is expected to stop, but the cold will stay.
Evans noted the temperature is expected to drop 40 degrees from early Friday morning to early Saturday, bringing the abnormal 60-degree temperatures down to a more common winter temperature of 20 or so degrees.
“The wind is supposed to pick up also later today, so you’ll see some blowing and drifting show and a wind chill below zero tonight,” Evans said.
