winter storm watch in effect

A cold front with a wave of low pressure is expected to track just to the north of the region Thursday. This will spread a large area of snow throughout the region starting around dawn and lasting into the mid afternoon before a dry slot comes through. temperatures will be in the 20’s Thursday across the mid south with average accumulations of 2-4 inches thanks in large part to snow ratios close to 20:1. The main variable that has lead to shifts in forecasted accumulations is the amount of qpf right now the models have come into good agreement for about .15 qpf, around 3 inches of snow. snow will stick to all surfaces and will lead to deteriorating travel conditions throughout the day in addtion winds will pikc up to around 10 mph allwoing for blowing snow as well to reduce visbailtes. tommorow I will go into winter storm mode with updates or comments every few hours on the winter weather situation. Allow extra time when traveling tomorrow. Although we are under a winter storm watch i see the entire mid south region being switched to a winter weather advisory later today but this will still be a serious winter system to affect the mid south with large scale impacts.  To see how this cold stretch ranks all time please see Dr.Goodrich’s write up from earlier this week.