Freezing Rain & Drizzle To Make It Dicey

Just a very quick update to once again alert many of you about some light freezing rain and drizzle that will overspread our Harrisburg area around 6 pm or so this evening....so just stay in a watch what should hopefully be an entertaining NFL Championship game between the Giants and the 49ers!  But back to the topic at hand...here are the temps forecasted by the high resolution NAM for this evening at 6 pm.  These modeled temps do look reasonable given the overcast conditions at this time and also with the fresh snow cover keeping the surface cold!  Clearly, they will be several degrees below freezing this evening and into the first part of the overnight.

However, go up one mile and temps are beginning to warm.  I would not be surprised to see some of this fall as sleet or even a few flakes, but most will fall as liquid and freeze on contact with the cold surface.  What is most concerning is the light amounts that are forecast to fall as that will better enable the water to freeze and do so rather quickly without liberating too much latent heat of fusion...but I'll not bore y'all with the thermodynamics of phase changes in water!  Here are the temps one mile up for this evening...the blue pockets would support snowflakes; the green raindrops.

Lastly, here is the simulated radar for this evening at about kickoff of the NFC Championship game.  If you do need to venture outside this evening and into the overnight, just be aware of the probability of icy surfaces that are not treated or sitting in brine that was created by PennDot yesterday.

By 9 am Monday morning, temps everywhere around the Harrisburg region rise above freezing according to the model, but many times, these models including the high resolution models underestimate the low level cold.  If we can get any mixing from above, then these temps will easily rise above freezing.  Otherwise, they will be very stubborn to rise above 32ºF very quickly Monday morning.  Just be aware...

OK...that's all for now...gotta go get primed with a fruit smoothie for the AFC game.  Apple, orange, blueberry, grape, splash of almond milk, yogurt, and some ice all zinged together for a delicious pre-game treat!  Doesn't that sound yummy?  I know...I know...you'd rather have Chopp's jerky and bologna!  But these are good...trust me!  Enjoy your NFL Championship Sunday!

Smitty

AA:  Freezing drizzle and light freezing rain this evening and into the overnight.  Be careful if you venture out!