By the time Friday’s newspapers hit mailboxes, there could be quite a bit of snow on the ground.
And by the time the weekend storm moves through, Pulaski might see three to four inches of the white stuff.
The new winter system is set to hit this area between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., according to meteorologist Jonathan Marcus with the National Weather Service in Jackson.
Snowfall “will intensify as the day goes on Friday, before wrapping up with some flurries into Saturday morning,” he said.
“But the good news for this system is the precipitation should be primarily be snow,” he continued, meaning Pulaski shouldn’t see the mix of rain, ice and sleet that we saw last Sunday.
“Across the southeastern mountains there may be a little bit of sleet mixed in, but this is not looking like a major ice storm event like the last one,” Marcus said.
Still, Marcus had some warnings about possible road conditions for drivers in this area.
“I will say because it is going to be cold at the start of this system, we are probably looking at snow sticking to the roads pretty quickly,” he said. “With that, we’re definitely advising anyone with travel plans on Friday into Saturday morning to take it slow, be sure to go to the GoKY website (goky.ky.gov) and look at the road conditions in advance. Take it easy and be careful. While we don’t explicitly forecast road temperatures, the air temperature will be cold enough for it to start sticking pretty quickly.”
There was more good news for those who may have travel plans that include going to the northern part of the state. The snow accumulations may be less that direction than they are here.
Marcus said that’s because this is a southern-stream storm, coming in from the southwest.
“There’s going to be a swath of heavier snow setting up from Arkansas through the Memphis region, into western Kentucky. The snow totals are going to decrease a little as you go north and east,” he said.
Even better news, Sunday’s temperatures are expected to be in the mid-30s. Between that and the clear skies that are expected as well, it might just warm enough to get some melting before Monday morning’s commute, he said.