Western Kentucky Survives Another Winter Snowstorm

Western Kentucky braces itself for another winter snowstorm. According to the National Whether Center the Southeast region, including Western Kentucky is to get up to 6 to 8 inches of wet snow starting 2-8-10 into 2-9-10 with the strongest point of the storm to center in Calloway County, KY and the surrounding Western KY region. The storm began on February 8, 2010 at roughly 1:00 pm, while I was still at work and attacked our area with force. By the time I got off work at 5:00 pm there was already 1-½ inches of snow on the roads. This storm hit just after the January 29, 2010 snowstorm dropped 8 to 10 inches of snow to our area in KY, TN and IL.

The snow left from the January storm was a pleasant powdery snow that made it easy to clean up, shoveling the steps, walkway and driveway at my home during the last storm was uneventful. There was practically no ice build up from the last storm and what little ice did accumulate was easily removed with an application of salt.

This snowstorm is anticipated to bring heavy wet snow with freezing temperatures to fall below zero with the wind chill factor and there will be a heavy accumulation of ice. Thus making the clean up for the Calloway County road crews more difficult and dangerous. Unlike the last storm in January, I did not see the road crews out until early this morning on 2-9-2010 and was a little disappointed with how the roads looked. It was as if we had no road crews. I live off a dangerous highway St. Rt.121 South in Calloway County and there had been no salt on the road nor had it been plowed, making my drive to work this morning treacherous. There were three vehicles in the ditch along side St. Rt. 121 South this morning at 7:45 am due to poor driving conditions.

I feel that Calloway County has not been as diligent with this storm as with the last, with this storm to continue into the late afternoon hours and another 1 to 3 inches of snow is expected and the temperatures are to drop into the low teens; which will make it great for the roads to freeze up with a nasty layer of ice, making for the evening commute home terrible and dangerous.

All of the schools in our area have been closed due to the snow and my happy children are enjoying their snow day. I myself am currently at work, but the good news is that all my patients canceled and I am going home early too, to build a snowman with my children.

One thing concerns me about this storm; Kentucky has had so much snow and rain accumulation in the past two months that our soil cannot hold any more water. When this snow melts the meteorologists are saying that we could get some flash flooding from the melt off. All of our creeks, rivers and streams are at their capacity and will not be able to hold much more. So now that this storm is passing over us here in Western Kentucky, we now brace for what is to possible come in the aftermath.

As of 4:00 pm Tuesday February 9, 2010 the snow is still falling, temperatures have fallen into the low teens with the wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour and the wind chill factor below zero. The snow that is now on the ground is frozen and the roads now have a solid sheet of ice. According to the local channel 6 news station there have been several accidents along all the major highways as well as the State Route highways, most of these accidents are due to the ice road conditions.

The up date from the National Whether Center states that this storm could last through the night. As a Calloway County resident I can only hope and pray that the power stays on and that the storm heads out.

This article is from my own personal experience
References for this article came from www.weather.com and www.weatherchannel.com