Times Bulletin Correspondent
VAN
WERT — Weather specialist Rick McCoy said late Sunday that area
residents need to be keeping up with weather forecasts over the next
couple of days. Following a wet snow on Sunday which dropped one to
three inches across much of the area, officials are turning their sights
toward a system from the southwest that could dump major amounts of
snow on the local area in midweek, said McCoy.
“This is going to
be a strong system,” said McCoy. “Weather officials earlier this
afternoon said that if it positions itself on an expected tract, it
could dump close to five inches or more of snow somewhere in the local
area.”
“While they wouldn’t speak out on specifics, officials said
it looks like the main low is moving toward the Ohio River Valley,”
continued McCoy. “Exact track of the storm is going to mean everything.
If it moves along close to the Ohio River, most of Indiana and Ohio
could be in for a substantial snowstorm.”
McCoy said that Sunday’s
event surprised weather officials a little. At first they called for a
dusting, then up to one inch and finally up to three inches on Sunday
morning. In the end, Fort Wayne recorded four inches of snow in some
parts of the city while most of the local area from Van Wert to Decatur
received one to two inches of snow initially.
“Because of the
unusually warm weather we’ve had the first half of this month, the
ground and pavements were not frozen. Because of that, much of the snow
thawed kind of quickly late in the afternoon. Early Friday, strong
northwest winds brought the beginning of winter readings back to the
area.
“It appears now that we are going to be back in the cold air
for up to the next couple of weeks,” said McCoy. “Following Wednesday’s
potential storm, approaching cold air currents could bring down a
couple of Alberta clippers late in the week and on the weekend. Either
of those could be capable of dropping another couple of inches of snow.”
In
spite of the apparent switch to more wintry weather, McCoy said that in
the big picture, the whole country is still under the control of one of
the strongest La Ninas in the last several years.
“Even if we
experience some really wintry weather over the next couple of weeks, I
still expert the warmer-than-normal weather to return by mid-February.
That’s just the way these systems work, especially the ones of this
magnitude.
“The big story early this week is to monitor forecasts
closely, just in case and be prepared for snow removal and make sure you
are stocked up on necessities,” cautioned McCoy.