Update on Late-Week Snow

A very complicated storm will evolve across the eastern 2/3 of the country over the next couple of days and it will have a big impact on northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.Here is the official WFMJ snow map, hot off the presses:Most of this will fall during the afternoon Friday and early Friday evening. Snow will taper off and end later Friday night. In many places, this storm will NOT be as big of a snow producer as last week's....although in the northern part of the area (which did not get hot as hard last week) it will be comparable.One bit of "good" news: A fairly high percentage of this snow will fall when temperatures are near freezing.....during the day. That will make it easier for road crews to keep up, especially on the main roads. This storm will bring hefty amounts of ice to parts of the southern Plains and the Mississippi Valleys, as shown in the orange-colors on the midday Friday map:During Thursday night around the Youngstown area, we will probably see a transition from rain to a mix of sleet and rain to a mix of snow and sleet to finally ALL snow. The mix may last a little longer toward the Rt. 30 corridor.A quick note about the cold next week: it is VERY unusual to see this kind of cold this early in the season. Here's a chart showing the number of days Youngstown has had a HIGH temperature at or below 20 degrees in early December since 1930. Has not happened often and the last time it occurred was in 1995.