We dodged a bullet

Good Sunday morning, everyone. This is a special Sunday blog update for our current winter weather situation. We were fortunate last night that the freezing line, after dipping as far south as northern Cumberland County, retreated back to the north and then stalled. This spared us any widespread wintry precip. A nose of warmer air also moved in and that kept temps in the 33-36 degree range across the plateau after midnight.

Folks will be wondering how much snow we would have had if this had been snow. I have 1.6 inches of rain in my gage right now and that would have been about 16 or 17 inches of snow. Yeah, that’s a lot of snow! That’s a bit of an unfair statement, though. The only reason we ended up with an inch and a half of rain is because warmer, more moist air moved in from the south. If it had stayed colder our air would be drier. I think it’s smarter to say that if our rain last night had been snow we would have 6-10 inches.

Of course, this could have easily been ice, too. It’s hard to say how much ice we would have but you can bet none of us would have power today if that had been the case. I would go as far as to say we wouldn’t have had power for several days.

The colder air is trying to make its way toward us once again and that could lead to some light snow later this morning. It still looks like things could get white but it just depends on when/if that changeover takes place before most of the moisture is gone.

Tonight, another disturbance slides in and that could bring another chance for light snow. That system will be all snow but it’s going to be moisture starved. Still, I think we have a chance for up to an inch. I’ll keep you posted.