by Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Winter Weather watch for most of the tri-state area that will last from late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
According to the statement, “significant snowfall is looking increasingly likely.”
Precipitation is expected to begin, probably as rain, Saturday night or very early Sunday morning. Four to eight inches of snow is expected in the Webster County area, with most of that coming Sunday morning.
Following the snowfall, “extreme cold” is expected to settle into the area for most of the week. The coldest days are expected to be Monday and Tuesday, with wind chills dipping to as much as minus 25.
NWS is calling the predicted cold temperatures to be “an arctic outbreak of potentially historic proportions, with Monday possibly being the coldest day since February of 1996. Maybe even the coldest day on record.
The combination of significant snowfall, followed by the extreme cold, means that the snow will probably be around for longer than we normally experience in this area.