Severe Winter Storm Expected

By Carrie Pond

Paducah, KY – Paducah's National Weather Service has issued a severe winter storm warning beginning tonight at 6 p.m. until around noon on Wednesday. NWS's Rick Shanklin says the storm could be one of the most severe the region has seen in years.

Ice a major concern with this event. And it certainly could rank up there with being one of the worst, and it's not out of the question completely that it could be our worst winter storm over the last decade or so."

Precipitation will begin around 6 o'clock this evening in southeast Missouri and spread rapidly, entering the Purchase area by 9 p.m. and hitting all of western Kentucky before midnight. A break is expected between noon and five p.m. Tuesday, with another round of precipitation starting in the evening. Western Kentucky residents can expect mostly freezing rain and sleet, with snow and ice accumulation of between 5 and 10 inches. Forecasters are unable to pinpoint how bad it will be in Western Kentucky counties along the Tennessee border. Those counties could receive a half inch or more of ice accumulation tonight, or the temperatures could rise above freezing, turning precipitation into rain.