HERE WE GO AGAIN – MORE SNOW

A “SIGNIFICANT WEATHER EVENT” HEADING OUR WAY

The National Weather Service in Cleveland issued a WINTER STORM WATCH for the lower Great Lakes Region beginning Friday afternoon through late Saturday night.

The watch was issued at 2:35 P.M. today, just moments after a 2 PM conference call between the National Weather Service and Emergency Management Agency Directors from across our region. The conference call, complete with a Power Point Presentation, was to alert the Directors of the storm that is headed our way.

Developing low pressure will move northeast from the Gulf into Pennsylvania by Saturday spreading snow over the area and starting around midday Friday and lasting into late Saturday night. By the time the snow tapers off Saturday night, an average of 8 to 14 inches is possible.

Tom Kelley, Director of the Lorain County Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security, said that a conference call like this is rare and usually means we are in for something serious. “Right now it looks like we are going to have a pretty significant weather event. The National Weather Service in Cleveland has been pretty proactive the last couple years in doing briefings with the County Emergency Management Agencies in their area of responsibility which is about 34 counties. From what they are saying today and the graphics that they showed us, depending on the track of the low and where it is going to go, we can get anywhere from 4 to 5 inches and up to 12 to 15 inches.”

Kelley said more will be known later tonight as forecasters keep an eye on the track of the low pressure systems. The other issue of concern is the wind speeds that were brought up during the conference call. It is believed that sustained wind speeds on Saturday afternoon could be near 25 with gusts up to 40 MPH.

Keep checking back with TMCNEWS.NET for further updates on the storm.