Winter Storm: Plan for accumulating snow on Friday

Winter Storm Warnings have been issued for many counties in northern Ohio and a Winter Weather Advisory has been issued elsewhere.

By: Katie McGraw

Two systems (a clipper from the Northwest and a disturbance to the south) will interact with each other and bring accumulating snow to the entire viewing area on Friday. Some communities will continue to deal with snow on Saturday as well.

As with every system that affects NEO, there will be a range of impacts, including how much snow to expect and when. There are a lot of details to discuss with this system, but I am going to try to break it down and summarize it - so everyone has an idea of what to expect over the next three days.

QUICK NOTES:

Winter weather alerts are in effect for every county in NEO.
Looks like a good chance for everyone in our viewing area to see accumulation.
Snow chances continue into Friday afternoon for much of the area, meaning both commutes could be negatively impacted.
Snow transitions to lake effect by Friday late afternoon/evening, ending snow for most counties outside of the snow belts
The lake effect lingers into Saturday, with some additional minor accumulation for the primary snowbelts. It could take until Saturday night for portions of the snowbelt to see the snow come to a complete end.
Saturday will be frigid with temps in the teens and gusty winds up to 30 mph.
Keep in mind snowfall totals are for the entire event. Also, remember to look at the low AND high numbers of the snowfall total range.
Plan for tweaks and updates to the forecast/this article. We will keep you posted on any big changes to the forecast.

ALERTS: The National Weather Service has issued two different winter weather alerts for every single community/county in the Power of 5 Viewing area.

A WINTER STORM WARNING for Lake, Ashtabula, and Geauga counties will be in effect until 10 p.m. Saturday.
A WINTER STORM WARNING is also in effect for Erie, Lorain, Cuyahoga, Huron, Medina, and Summit counties but will expire earlier. It is set to expire at 4 a.m. Saturday.
The warning is for counties that are in pink in the graphic below. Snow totals over six inches are expected, with gusty winds up to 30 mph in the warned area. Snow will linger the longest in Mentor, Willoughby, Eastlake, Painesville, Willowick, Wickliffe, Chardon, South Russell, Bainbridge, Chesterland, Middlefield, and Burton. Since the snow stays in this area the longest, the highest totals are expected there. The warning area also includes the cities of Cleveland, Akron, Sandusky, Huron, Lorain, Elyria, North Ridgeville, Avon Lake, Norwalk, Willard, Brunswick, Medina, and Wadsworth, but snow is expected to wrap up earlier.
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY is in effect for every other community/county in our viewing area (the counties in purple). It will be in effect through Friday night. The advisory includes the cities of Port Clinton, Oak Harbor, Fremont, Tiffin, Upper Sandusky, Bucyrus, Mansfield, Ashland, Wooster, Orrville, Rittman, Marion, Millersburg, and Killbuck. Two to five inches looks likely for the communities in the advisory/purple.

TIMING AND TOTALS:
While the widespread snow was fairly lackluster overnight, lake-enhanced snow has been picking up west of Cleveland since around sunrise. As of 10 am Friday, most of our reports are coming in from the west side of Cleveland, where 2-4 inches quickly dropped. This band is gradually shifting east and spreading farther south.

By noon on Friday, most communities (especially north) will have picked up a few inches of snow, but the snow looks to continue well into the afternoon. Snow eventually transitions to lake-effect snow. This will shut down the snow for most of the area, but lake effect snow will continue into Saturday for the primary snowbelt. It could take as long as Saturday night to completely end there. Scroll through the images of Futurecast to get an idea about the placement of lake enhanced/lake-effect snow.

Additional accumulation is possible on Saturday, but as of Friday morning, it looks pretty minor. Probably 1-2 inches at the most. When all is said and done, I expect there to be several reports of two to five inches across our entire viewing area, with a couple of spots over six inches, particularly in the snowbelts, where 5-9 inches still looks possible.

It will also be very cold by tonight and into Saturday, with temps in the teens. Winds are expected to increase with gusts of 20-30 mph. This will make the wind chills dip below zero once again. We're here for you and will keep you posted in a variety of ways over the next two days. Stay safe!