The snowfall predicted for Butler County and Southeast Missouri is unlikely to stick, according to Dan Spaeth at National Weather Service Paducah.
Temperatures tonight (Jan. 14) are expected to remain in the high 30s and ensure the area only gets a cold drizzle. Saturday has a high of 39 during the day dropping to a low of 24, but by that point most of the precipitation will have moved on.
“The cold air is lagging behind the winter precipitation,” Spaeth said.
A wintry mix of rain, snow and slush, plus patchy fog is expected to develop in the afternoon following a morning of cold rain. Spaeth believes as long as temperatures remain as warm as expected accumulation will be minimal.
“We have a transition there around midday tomorrow, from rain to snow, or at least a mixture of the two, and temperatures 35 and above — it’s gonna be hard to get a whole lot of snow in there,” he said.
The evening will also be cold, but chances of rain progressively decrease towards Sunday morning and a stiff north wind will help evaporate the water on the roadways. The wind is expected to stay between 11 and 20 miles per hour but could gust over 30 miles per hour.
“Even in the evening, when the temperatures do start to get down to freezing, it’s going to be quite breezy with northeast and north winds that should dry out the pavement before there’d be much chance for black ice to develop,” Spaeth noted.
Overall, he expects the winter storm to be thankfully anticlimactic.
“We’re going to have snow tonight up to your north and northwest and then down to the south of us (Paducah) tomorrow night and Sunday,” he said. “And fortunately, [you’re] kind of stuck in the middle with not a whole lot.