Weather shift has Toledo area seeing white

Snow expected to melt by mid afternoon today

4/15/2014

Now that you’re used to summerlike weather like the area had over the weekend, expect a wet slap in the face from Mother Nature.

Brian Mitchell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said between an inch and two inches of snow were expected to fall between midnight and 8 a.m. today in the greater Toledo area as temperatures dip from about 70 degrees Monday morning to just below freezing early today and rain turns to snow.

Higher temperatures on the roads will prevent the snow from accumulating “for the most part,” but grassy areas are expected to have some accumulation, with most of it expected to melt by midday, Mr. Mitchell said.

He said as of Monday evening, the area had just a trace of snowfall, but if snow overnight hit 1.5 inches, it “would put us just a little over average,” which is 1.3 inches for April.

Theresa Pollick, spokesman at the Ohio Department of Transportation’s district office in Bowling Green, said that ODOT, aware of the wintery weather coming this way, was prepared to deal with it.

“We have very warm pavement temperatures so any snow that will fall overnight will melt on contact,” Ms. Pollick said. “But we do plan to have crews out overnight in case we have slick conditions on the roadway, especially on the bridges.”

“[Because] it’s been a couple of weeks when we had no snow or slippery road conditions, I would like to remind drivers to adjust to the weather conditions and check their tires for pressure and tread and to check winter wiper fluid and to only drive at the speed they are comfortable with,” Lt. Anthony DeChoudens, the commander of the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Sandusky post said. “Just because there’s a speed limit doesn’t mean you have to drive that fast if there’s bad weather in the area.”

Dr. David Grossman, Toledo-Lucas County health commissioner, said this weather change may be bad news for some people and good news for others.

“This temperature drop could precipitate some conditions such as migraine and sinus congestion for some people,” Dr. Grossman said. “But it can also slow down the beginning of the allergy season by a couple of days.”

High winds caused a power outage in the Blissfield area briefly Monday morning.

A storm had passed through the area, causing outages in the DTE Energy utility’s coverage area at about 7 a.m., with utility crews restoring power by 8:20 a.m.

Blissfield, which is in Lenawee County, is about 20 miles northwest of Toledo.

Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.