Snow, ice to make a mess Wednesday

Snow, sleet and freezing rain.

More of that winter weather extravaganza is headed our way Wednesday in the second storm in just over a week.

A winter storm watch is in effect from 10 a.m. Wednesday through 8 a.m. Thursday. Heavy mixed precipitation is possible, with total snow accumulations of 2 to 5 inches and ice accumulations of up to one-tenth of an inch possible. Power outages are possible.

All of that is expected to result in nasty conditions, according to Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.

“We’ve got a potpourri of precipitation heading our way tomorrow,” Kines said. “It looks like snow arrives in the morning, (though) I don’t think the morning commute becomes a problem.”

Kines said the first traces of snow could begin to fall around 9 a.m., but if not, certainly by the lunch hour.

“The lunch hour looks like a mix; the snow still continues into the afternoon and will accumulate 2 to 4 inches, then change over to sleet and freezing rain later in the afternoon,” he said. “Probably during the nighttime hours it changes over to just freezing rain before it ends.”

Kines cautioned that with the snow changing over — for example, if the change over is delayed by two or three hours — that could mean even more snow.

“If that would happen, we’d get more than 4 inches,” he said. “As it stands right now, we’ll go with that 2 to 4 inches.”

Kines said regardless of how much snow we see, “travel is going to be poor.”

“Another thing we’ve got to watch out for is if we get a prolonged period of freezing rain, we could be dealing with possibly power outages and trees coming down,” he said. “It just looks like a real messy storm; it’s going to have a real impact on the area.”

There is good news once the storm begins to clear out on Thursday, as the sun is expected to come out, with temperatures in the high 40s, maybe 50, Kines said.

On Friday, Kines said temperatures are expected to reach the mid-40s.

“I don’t know how much moisture is going to be left after Thursday, but the temperatures Thursday night will get down below freezing,” he said. “If there’s any slush, it will freeze up.”

So, those looking for any silver lining may find that soon after the storm ends, Kines said.

“In general, Thursday and Friday are looking like good days,” he said. “A lot of melting going down; good business for the car wash.”

However, Kines said another system could be headed our way over the weekend that will likely result in some rain Saturday night or Sunday.

“In general, this is a warmer storm,” he said. “I guess it wouldn’t shock me if there were a period of freezing rain Saturday night; if there is, it probably wouldn’t last very long.”

Unlike this winter, which started out with a whimper, but has evolved into one nuisance storm after another within the past month.