The snowfall is over for most of us.  Some of our northern counties may still see a few flurries/light snow showers, but for the rest of us, we expect no additional accumulation.  

Now our attention turns to light freezing rain and freezing drizzle.  That is what we will be dealing with as the night goes on.  Even though the precipitation is light… it is just enough to cause very icy conditions!

I just walked out into our parking lot here at the studio… and there is a light glaze of ice over the entire thing!  So any untreated surface like parking lots, sidewalks or patios will be icy.  Also, I am sure you have heard about many area street departments having to cut back on salt usage.  There are likely many roads out there that have not been treated.  Extra caution is needed!  We will continue to see light icing as the night goes on. 

Our temperatures at the surface are below freezing… in the mid-and-lower 20s.  So how are we seeing RAIN and not SNOW, you ask?  Well, it has more to do with the temperatures of the atmosphere as you go up.

Here is a great description of what is going on.  Today, the atmosphere was colder earlier on.  There was enough cold air in place for snow to fall the entire length of the atmosphere… all the way down to the surface:

But as the day went on… warmer air moved in above our heads!  That caused the snow that was falling to melt… long before it reached the ground:

However, there is still cold air at the surface… so when liquid precip falls, it FREEZES!  Hence the term FREEZING RAIN. 

Wednesday will start off with freezing drizzle possible… so icy conditions could be around in the morning, as well.  Tune in to 2 News at Sunrise… starting at 5am.  Brian Davis will have the latest with Live Doppler 2X, and info on how the roads are.

High pressure builds in to dry us out Wednesday afternoon and most of Thursday.  Then another storm moves in Thursday evening… this one looks even warmer.  Mostly rain, with our temperatures in the 40s!

Jamie