Ice Storm

This will be my last post ahead of the storm.  I'm going to keep this one short.

Normally I like to take a stab at what I think will happen during the duration of a storm.  This time I have to back off.  It is becoming more evident that warm air will set up in between layers of cold air to create a bigger icing event than I had thought.  I thought this because using my resources the temperatures never made it above 32.  They still don't.  But outside of other forecasts I have no way to tell that there is going to be a warm layer changing snow to rain and freezing it on contact.

This is what I can say.  After seeing the last run we are sitting in an area of almost 1.25 liquid inches of precipitation.  That's probably almost half an inch more than this past storm.  So whatever is falling is going to accumulate a lot.  If you notice our warning has dropped down to 1-2 inches of snow.  There is no mention of any change over to plain rain.  There is going to be an extended and heavy period of sleet and freezing rain.  It's enough to potentially cause serious problems.

Unfortunately this is exactly what we didn't want to see.  If you notice from the prior heavy, sticky snow the majority of trees and wires are already weighed down by multiple inches of snow.  The storm tomorrow alone could be enough to bring down trees.  Adding to what is already there is a recipe for trouble.  I expect to hear of many power outages tomorrow as well as downed trees.  Hell, nobody in PA has one yet but might be time to start throwing up some Freezing Rain Warnings.

Stay inside.  Be prepared for the possibility of no electric.  Or better yet, expect to lose power.


And a quick update on the weekend.  Regardless of what happens we are probably getting snow Sunday into Monday.  The difference will be a few inches or over a foot.  Latest run suggests the first option.