Our area began seeing a mix of sleet and freezing rain before midnight. The snow arrived early Friday morning, being heavy at times combined with gusty winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.
Traffic ADVISORY Snow across our District 1 Counties has transitioned to snow. Windy conditions have reduced visibility. We have several snow plows off the road due to the slick conditions. We continue to urge motorists to stay home. The freezing rain, freezing drizzle and sleet is transitioning to snow in some of our District 2 counties. Here is a county by county report for D2: Caldwell - Freezing rain transitioning to snow Christian - I 24 closed just before getting into Kentucky. Tractor trailer across road. Daviess - Applying salt to bridges and preparing. Hancock - Henderson - drivers waiting on southern routes for weather to hit. Hopkins - sleet McLean - wintery mix. Muhlenberg - sleet/snow. Ohio - plowing ice off certain highways in Centertown area. Union - Webster - snowing. Salt and CaCl seem to be helping dissipate some of the ice accumulation. Some counties have seen a change from sleet to snow. For more timely updates go to www.facegook.com/kytcdistrict1 or www.facebook.com/kytcdistrict2.
Ice accumulating on power lines has evidently been a problem in some locations. Residents in Murray were reporting power out this morning, and West Kentucky Rural Electric was reported to have about 1700 customers off line at one point.
Snowfall will continue throughout the day, ending sometime late afternoon, with amounts of 1 inch in southern Illinois to almost a foot in the Pennyrile region near Hopkinsville.
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.
MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MUCH OF THE DAY…BEFORE FINALLY COMING TO AN END FROM WEST TO EAST THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM AROUND 4 INCHES NEAR THE OHIO RIVER, TO AS MUCH AS 12 INCHES IN THE SOUTHERN PENNYRILE REGION OF WEST KENTUCKY.
TRAVEL ACROSS THE AREA HAS ALREADY BECOME VERY DANGEROUS. THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW AND GUSTY NORTH WINDS WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO UNDER A QUARTER MILE AT TIMES.
THE GUSTY WINDS WILL ALSO LEAD TO BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW WHICH WILL MAKE TRAVEL ACROSS THE REGION MORE DANGEROUS…EVEN ALONG INTERSTATES 24 AND 69…AND THE PURCHASE…WEST KENTUCKY…AND PENNYRILE PARKWAYS.
TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED.