A complicated wintry forecast

Weather Headlines

–Rain, changing to snow Tuesday evening, with light accumulations likely

–A light wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet is possible Friday morning (monitoring)

Main threats

Wintry precip Tuesday night could lead to some slick roads both Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Sharply colder temperatures will move in Tuesday night.

Another chance for a light wintry mix could cause travel probs Friday morning (monitoring).

Summary

Today, we’ll see mostly cloudy skies and some scattered showers. Rainfall amounts will be on the very light side. Winds will be stiff once again today, with some gusts over 25 mph possible.

Tonight, rain increases in coverage and intensity. That rain continues into the morning hours. An arctic cold front will cross the plateau sometime in the morning. That front will send temps tumbling. At the same time, temps aloft will remain warm enough for rain. With that combination, precip should stay liquid through at least the early afternoon.

Then, later in the afternoon, colder air will develop aloft and here at the surface, creating a situation where the rain will quickly change to big, wet snowflakes. That complete changeover may occur just before dark. I’ll keep an eye on that timing. Just be prepared for some possible tricky travel home from work Tuesday evening, just in case this stuff speeds up a bit.

That snow will continue through the night, decreasing in intensity as we go through the night. It will take the snow some time to accumulate on the warm, wet ground. However, it now looks like we could see around an inch of accumulation of snow. With it being a wetter snow, it should stick to tree branches, making for a winter wonderland scene.

I’ll be watching all of this very closely. Winter weather advisories will be issued for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Then, Wednesday is looking good.

Clouds will then increase on Thursday. Our next system will move in late Thursday night/Friday morning. If temps are hovering around freezing, we could be looking at some very light freezing rain/drizzle Friday morning. That would create dangerous driving conditions. That is still several days away, so there’s plenty of time to watch that.

Whatever frozen precip we have that morning should quickly change to plain rain by mid-morning.

Almanac

Baldwin’s 7-Day forecast

Records

On this day in 1917 it was COLD! The low temp in Crossville was 11 below zero!

Monday Sun Day

About one million Earth’s would fit inside the sun! Yeah, that sucker is huge!

NASA Knowledge

The first African-American Astronaut was Maj. Robert H. Lawrence. He was selected for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program in 1965. That program’s intent was to have mini-space stations in low polar Earth orbit, occupied by 2-man crews for 30 days at a time, launching and returning to Earth aboard modified Gemini capsules (this was the Cold War days, after all).

Lawrence was born in Chicago in 1935 and graduated high school when he was 16. He would eventually earn his PhD in physical chemistry from Ohio State University in 1965.

Lawrence had only just begun the MOL program when something went wrong with his aircraft and he perished. Since every other MOL man went on to fly shuttle missions, it is certain Lawrence would have joined those ranks.

Because of the secrecy of the MOL program, Lawrence’s name went unknown for years. In fact, he didn’t even receive the proper title of astronaut until the 1990s, after a concerted effort to push for that overcame bureaucratic barriers. In 1997, he was noted for his outstanding accomplishments and the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis carried his MOL mission patch into orbit with them.

During NASA’s 50th year celebrations, Lawrence was honored for being a pioneer in what would become NASA. Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana said, “Maj. Lawrence truly was a hero. He took that first step setting the stage for what was to come.” His ground-breaking accomplishments more than 50 years ago continue to be an inspiration, showing that excellence knows no color.

Wx Hazards Across the Nation

You all have a great day!