Well, that escalated in a hurry.
A hazardous weather outlook vaulted right past a winter storm watch without so much as a pause — straight into a winter storm warning.
The National Weather Service isn’t pulling any punches on its forecast for the next couple of days. Judging from the parking lot at Kroger’s on Lexington Avenue on a sunny Sunday morning, people are listening.
For some reason, we love to buy bread and milk before a big snow. Or a bottle of bourbon to enjoy by the fire when we are stuck at home.
Forecasters now expect up to a foot of snow across north central Ohio by the time two “systems” work their way across the state.
It’s gonna really start while we are sleeping tonight, so you may want to plan on rising earlier to allow time for life’s necessities — shoveling, salting, plowing and cleaning off vehicles not lucky enough to be in a garage.
The winter storm warning, across an area that includes Richland, Ashland, Knox and Crawford counties, is in effect from Monday at 1 a.m. until Tuesday at 1 p.m.
For those working on President’s Day, your morning commute could be interesting, depending upon the timing of the first system’s arrival.
Two rounds of snow are expected across the area with one on Monday morning and a second round Monday night into Tuesday morning. The first round of snow on Monday morning will bring 2 to 4 inches of snow. The second round of snow on Monday night will be heavier with 4 to 8 inches of snow.
Total snowfall by Tuesday afternoon will be in excess of 8 inches within the warning areas. Bands of heavier snowfall may set up across northern Ohio on Monday night and allow for isolated higher snowfall amounts, perhaps as much as 12 inches.
Cold temperatures with highs in the teens to lower 20s and lows in the teens to single digits along with northerly winds to 10 mph may allow for wind chills to drop to the single digits or near zero across the region.
