Winter Storm Warning – Wednesday Morning Briefing

DEM Blogger

March 4, 2015

Here’s the latest from our morning conference call with the National Weather Service. As with last night’s update, we’ll start off with two slides from the briefing:

As before, you can click to enlarge both slides. Here’s the takeaway. Lexington will see rain through today until the changeover to sleet around 3:30pm-4:45pm. Sleet will continue until snow begins around 7:00pm, giving us a total of around a half-inch of sleet accumulation. The heaviest snowfall will be between 7:00pm and 1:00am – up to two inches per hour. By daybreak, we’ll have an estimated 9 inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground, with another inch coming over the daylight hours on Thursday.

The combination of sleet, wet snow, and high winds (gusts to 20mph) will imperil branches and power lines. Be prepared for power outages. Once the sleet starts, slick roads will make travel hazardous.

In addition, we’re already seeing localized flooding due to the overnight rain. The picture to the right was a foot of South Elkhorn Creek encroaching on Bowman Mill Road this morning around 8:30. Exercise extreme caution when traveling in low-lying areas.

We’ll continue to monitor this weather event as it develops. Stay with us here on our blog and on Twitter (@lexkyem) and Facebook (LexingtonKYEM) for updates throughout the next few days.