National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Overview

A strong cold front crossed the central Great Lakes on Tuesday, February 2, reaching northwest Ohio by Wednesday afternoon. Deep moisture advection extending from the Gulf of Mexico brought warm, moist air into the region. Precipitation developed ahead of the cold front, falling as rain Tuesday into Wednesday. The cold front slowly moved east across the area Wednesday afternoon through Wednesday night, settling across central Ohio by Thursday morning. With the frontal passage, rain transitioned to snow fairly quickly, with a brief wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet. Moderate snow accumulations of 2-5” were observed across northwest Ohio by Thursday morning. A new low pressure developed over the lower Mississippi Valley Thursday morning, moving north-northeast along the aforementioned cold front to the mid-Atlantic region by Friday morning. This new low was responsible for reinforcing moisture advection aloft and the redevelopment of moderate to heavy snowfall across the region Thursday afternoon through Friday morning. Additionally, warm air aloft due to strong warm air advection allowed for persistent freezing rain and sleet to fall across some of our southern counties, specifically from Knox to Trumbull Counties. Some of these areas did not transition to snow until Thursday evening.

 

When it was all said and done, most areas received 8 to 12 inches of snow, with isolated higher amounts in the snowbelt counties of Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, and Erie, PA, where amounts of 12 to 16 inches were observed. Southern counties that had a long duration of mixed precipitation also observed up to 0.1 inch of freezing rain and/or 1 inch of sleet before accumulating 6 to 11 inches of snow Thursday through Friday.

 

A strong 1050 mb high pressure built in from the upper Great Plains region as the low approached the area from the south on Thursday, causing a very tight pressure gradient across the area. This caused strong north to north-northeast winds Thursday afternoon through early Thursday night. Impacts were the greatest across northwest Ohio and near the lakeshore where wind gusts as high as 35 to 40 mph were observed, causing reduced visibility and areas of blowing and drifting snow. During the peak intensity of the event Thursday evening, many highways were closed, including small portions of I-77, I-71, I-480, and a large stretch of OH-2, with many counties reaching level 3 snow emergencies.

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NOHRSC analyzed snowfall from Wednesday, February 2 to Friday, February 4. 

Photo
Mid-level water vapor loop from 7 AM Wednesday, February 2 to 7 AM Friday, February 4.

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