Dangerous Cold Weather for Most of the Country; Rare Winter Storm for the South; Fire Weather Concerns for Southern California

Arctic air will filter south and east through early this week. As this cold air moves across the South, a rare winter storm is forecast to develop from Texas, Gulf Coast States into the Southeast through early this week. Several new daily record low temperatures are expected, including new record-low maximum temperatures. For Southern California, fire weather concerns increase this week. Read More >

January 20-21, 2012
Winter Storm

Low pressure tracked northeast through the Tennessee Valley late Friday evening, January 20th, 2012, combining with a low pressure system over the Great Lakes to produce precipitation across the Ohio Valley. Across West Central Ohio and northern portions of Central Ohio, where there was a deep Arctic air mass in place, precipitation mainly fell as snow, with several inches observed. Closer to the Interstate 70 corridor and farther south, warm air aloft worked northward from the southern storm, causing the precipitation to transition to primarily sleet and freezing rain. Numerous reports of 1/4 inch of icing were received across Southwest Ohio and Southeast Indiana, including the Cincinnati metro area. Temperatures in Northern Kentucky and South Central Ohio were the warmest, which combined with light precipitation to only produce a thin glaze of ice. Precipitation pulled out of the region by the early morning hours of January 21st.