Tracking heavy rain tonight, changing to a mix and snow tomorrow
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy and breezy with showers becoming heavier overnight. Lows in the upper 20s to around 30.
TOMORROW: A wintry mix starts falling across most of the area between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m., changing over to snow by mid-late morning. Impacts will be felt most on the roads with a glaze to nearly a quarter inch of ice possible before a blanket of snow covers the region. Snow could be heavy at times with low visibility. Strong winds will drop wind chills below zero by Thursday night.
EXTENDED: Rain becomes more steady overnight, and even heavy at times for the southern half of the area. A few rumbles of thunder will be possible, but no severe weather is expected across Mid-Missouri. Temperatures drop from north to south, changing rain over to freezing rain between abut 4:00 to 6:00 a.m., then to a sleet/freezing rain mix through late morning. By around 10:00 a.m. to noon, we'll see a changeover from a mix to snow. Snow showers continue through the afternoon, tapering off from west to east by 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.. We're left with gusty winds and cold temperatures as lows dip into the single digits on Friday morning, with wind chills between -5 and -10 to start the day. Sunshine warms us up above freezing by early Friday afternoon as highs reach the upper 30s - this should help melt icy roads a bit. The weekend is looking nice with highs in the low 40s on Saturday and upper 50s on Sunday. Next week looks active again with highs near 60 on Monday and a chance of precipitation between Monday night and Wednesday.
Road temperatures are quite warm today, but are expected to drop below freezing around sunrise for our northern counties and slick roads will become a problem quickly thereafter. A glaze to 0.2" of ice is possible due to freezing rain, then we'll see sleet and snow accumulation between 4-7" for areas along I-70, with 2-4" possible near Jefferson City. Roads will be dangerous through Thursday night, and we'll have to watch for isolated power outages due to the strong wind gusts. Roads get more slushy by Friday afternoon as temperatures get above freezing.
