Mid-South Meteorology: Possible Ice Accumulations Thursday Night-Friday Morning

We're still watching for a possible wintry mix, Especially Thursday night into Friday, but our attention is turning more to possible problems with ICE than snow. Snowfall accumulations at this point, although we're still a ways off, appear to be around only 2 inches. This could change and shift A LOT between now and then!

Ice accumulations, from freezing rain, however appear to be more troublesome. Right now it looks like we're a cinch to see at least some ice accumulations. The Southern part of our region, in NW Tennessee, could see more ice than in Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois and SE Missouri. It looks like even more ice could accumulate in Northern Arkansas and westward. We should know more within 24 hours, but we are monitoring this VERY closely.

If everything goes according to the latest models, Friday morning's commute could be severely impacted. We'll continue to monitor the latest forecast data. At this time, however, for us, it does NOT appear to be as severe as the Ice Storm of 2009, BUT we're watching.

Remember, problems with ice accumulation usually begin with just a small amount, which impacts travel. With 1/4 to 1/2" inch of ice, we start to see power lines and trees affected, and with more than 1/2", we see MAJOR impacts. Let's hope our impacts are on the minimal side, but we'll be watching and updating.

This depicts ice accumulations of 1/4" and higher through Midnight, Thursday night. We expect more possible freezing rain the rest of Thursday night and into Friday.

Here's a look at a couple of different models for snow: Note this first model goes out 120 hours into the future, while the second only goes out 96 hours.