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Significant Winter Storm to Bring Heavy Snow and Ice Impacts; Dangerously Cold Temperatures Expands Across the East; Severe Storm Threat in the Gulf States Sunday

A significant winter storm is underway, bringing widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies to New England through Monday. Extremely cold air will follow, prolonging dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts into next week. Severe thunderstorms may produce damaging gusts and tornadoes across the eastern Gulf Coast states Sunday morning and afternoon. Read More >

Overview

A winter storm swept through Kentucky and southern Indiana on Friday, January 12, 2018, bringing a little bit of everything: rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, and gusty winds. Icing ranged from very little up to a quarter inch in spots. Snowfall amounts ranged from 1-6 inches across the area, generally highest west of I-65. Travel conditions were significantly impacted, especially Friday afternoon through Friday night. 

This weather system began as moderate rainfall for all of central Kentucky and southern Indiana Thursday into Thursday night. On Friday, as cooler air slowly pushed in from the west, the rain changed over to a wintry mix and eventually to all snow. The heaviest icing ended up on the western fringe of the I-65 corridor. Ice accumulations up to 0.20-0.25 inches occurred from the Russellville and Bowling Green areas up through western Jefferson County and into southern Indiana. Although some lost power, fortunately there were no major, long-duration power outages. 

The snow and ice made for very difficult travel conditions, especially later in the day on Friday. Numerous multiple-vehicle accidents occurred. As the snow wound down early Saturday, overnight low temperatures plunged into the teens. 

Ice in Fairdale. Photo courtesy Kerrie Ann Bal.

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