First snow hits Highland Co. since Feburary

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Highland County got its first taste of snow for the season Tuesday morning, the first snow fall since last February, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

Meteorologist Jeffrey Sites told The Times-Gazette that the cold air will continue and the Tuesday snow was “on the minimal side and only fell in isolated locations.”

“There were a few locations where it could be seen on the ground,” he said, “and honestly, I think this was just a small preview of what we’ll be seeing as the winter season progresses.”

He said people had to be up early to see the snow. He didn’t expect it to stay around very long since the system that spawned the snowfall moved off to the east.

Any trace of the Tuesday morning snowfall was gone by midday, and Sites said that Wednesday would start off cold with overnight lows in the low 20s followed by another chilly day that should be partly cloudy and a high in the mid 30s.

But he said another system was moving in Wednesday night that has the possibility of freezing rain in the forecast.

“That system is looking like it will start off as freezing rain,” he said, “but we’re looking at minimal amounts of it, maybe less than a tenth of an inch on exposed surfaces before the system exits our area Thursday night, but folks that’ll be on the road Thursday morning should be a little cautious on their way to work.”

He described the next seven days after that as a “benign weather pattern” that will lead into Thanksgiving and Black Friday, with alternating partly to mostly cloudy skies and below normal temperatures, with nighttime lows in the mid 20s and daytime highs in the mid 40s.

“Thanksgiving is right on the fringe of our ability to give a decent forecast,” he said. “But right now, I’d call it a cloudy and dry day with maybe some light rain moving in that night and into the overnight for all those really early Black Friday sales.”

He said the computer forecast models are showing a high in the mid to upper 40s for Thanksgiving Day and an overnight low “right around the 40-degree mark.”

The Mansfield native spent his formidable years in the snow belt of North Central Ohio and now lives north of Wilmington, so Tuesday’s light snow “isn’t anything compared to what I grew up with.”

In an issue from a few years ago, weather observers for the Old Farmer’s Almanac referenced an old weather saying that states that the day of the first trackable snow is the number of snowfalls that will occur that year.

With parts of Highland County experiencing its first trackable snow on Nov. 13, Sites wouldn’t make any predictions as to how many snowfalls the area would experience in the coming months.

“The almanac is also saying we’ll have a mild winter,” he said. “Only Mother Nature knows what we’re going to get and I don’t have a computer model for her.”

Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571

This photo of a snow-covered car was taken Tuesday morning on Point Liberty Road just south of New Market.
https://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2018/11/web1_Snow-on-car.jpgThis photo of a snow-covered car was taken Tuesday morning on Point Liberty Road just south of New Market. Tim Colliver | The Times-Gazette
Freezing rain possible Wednesday night

By Tim Colliver

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