Round 3 of ice storm arrives Saturday night
For the better part of 40 hours, Mid-Missouri has seen spotty freezing rain showers, with most of the activity situated along and south of the Highway 50 corridor. That activity has since come to an end, leaving areas like Linn, Rolla and Camdenton seeing upward of four tenths of an inch of freezing rain. There was a break in the activity during the day, following the brief bout of freezing rain that moved in early in the morning.
Even though most of Saturday has been on the dry side, there is more to come in the way of freezing rain. While this hasn’t been advertised as an all-out ice storm, it has been forecast to be one to have major impacts. We’ve already seen that near the I-44 corridor, where accumulating ice caused wrecks, fallen tree branches and power outages. Some of the ice has melted, but more is on the way.
The latest satellite imagery shows a large swath of freezing rain extending from Springfield, Missouri, all the way down to I-40 in Texas. This area has dumped up to a quarter-inch of freezing rain across portions of Kansas with more expected to fall. Through the night, this moisture will surge into our area, bringing us our last and final round of freezing rain. Not everyone will see the freezing rain though, as the freezing line, which is in southern Missouri will gradually begin to lift northward. That line is where the transition from freezing rain to rain will occur. For us here in Mid-Missouri that won’t happen until the early-morning hours into Sunday evening.
As this moisture tracks into Mid-Missouri once more, we will see scattered freezing rain showers through the overnight hours, before it becomes more steady by morning. When all is said and done, an additional one-tenth to four-tenths of an inch of ice is possible on elevated surfaces and untreated roadways. This will again cause potential problems on power lines and tree branches. The latest timing for the freezing rain will start as early as 11 p.m. in extreme southwestern Mid-Missouri and gradually track northeast by sunrise.
This is still a tricky forecast and it’s all dependent upon the freezing line and when we can expect to see the changeover. Here’s the latest on when you can expect to see all rain in your neck of the woods on Sunday.
I-44 Corridor: 8 – 10 a.m.
Highway 50: 10-12 p.m.
I-70 Corridor: 12-2 p.m.
Highway 24: 8-10 p.m.
Stay tuned to ABC 17 News for the latest on any updates to this forecast.
