UPDATE:
Viewers are reporting in the pre dawn hours via social media that ice is now coating surfaces from Charleston to the west. Power outages have also been reported in Braxton County. 13 News will be working to find out if these outages are connected to icy conditions or something else.
Driving can be slick to hazardous in freezing rain conditions but people need to be particularly careful walking to their cars and students need to be careful walking to their busses Friday morning as footing can be tricky.
Any closings or delays can be found here on the WOWKTV.com homepage.
UPDATE
The National Weather Service has issued a blanket Winter Weather Advisory starting after midnight.
Southeast Ohio, Charleston-Huntington and Eastern Kentucky areas should see just a few one-hundredths of an inch of ice through 8am then temps warm. That can be slick during those overnight hours and drivers may not even notice the ice visually given the rain occurring at the same time the ice is trying to form in a thin layer.
The high terrain of West Virginia is expected to have the cooler air hug the valleys longer for a greater accumulation of ice, up to a quarter of an inch on cold surfaces. Roads that receive treatment should respond to salt however, bridges and overpasses tend to remain icy. Again, a major problem for drivers will be the rain falling on a layer of ice which only looks wet. Treat anything that looks wet as slick.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
We're watching a storm system that's exploding across Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Up to a foot of snow is possible near Kansas City and that system is headed towards Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Meteorologist Bryan Hughes said, "This storm is going to move across the region but it won't have the significant snow that they're seeing in the Great Plains. We'll have just enough warm air from the south and Arctic air from the north, once these two air masses collide...it's ice that we're concerned with."
StormTracker meteorologists are watching this storm as it could bring some VERY slick travel to the area early Friday morning. "The ice will quickly melt off once we're an hour or so past sunrise but that won't help anything with the early morning commute", Hughes says.
The time frame for the ice will be 10:00 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. from Thursday night through early Friday morning. We do expect that light ice accumulation will continue in the mountains into the mid-morning.
A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for most of the region and this is where we'll see some freezing rain and sleet. Roads will become ICY tonight and early tomorrow morning. Travel will become problematic overnight.
The Winter Storm Watch is in effect from Beckley to Fayetteville to Summersville to Webster Springs to Elkins. These locations will see SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATION! We have an opportunity to see ice totals near 1/4", this will cause a layer of ice on trees and wires which can cause widespread power outages. Driving should be avoided in these areas, especially in the higher elevations.
Predictor, the StormTracker computer forecast model, has been SPOT ON with this forecast for the past 3 days. It's been consistent while showing a wintry mix for Thursday night near or after 10:00 p.m. through sunrise on Friday.
After the early morning freezing rain, light showers move through with temperatures rolling up a few notches to about 45 degrees. Our Predictor shows the rain tapering off after noon.
Keep it here, we'll keep you advised.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WOWK. All Rights Reserved.
