By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
A late-spring snow will move across the region overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning, while subfreezing temperatures are expected early Wednesday.
A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect until 10 a.m. Tuesday, as a rain/snow mix is expected to start around midnight Monday night and transition to all snow by 1 or 2 a.m. Tuesday.
"That'll continue well into the morning hours," National Weather Service Pleasant Hill meteorologist Jonathan Kurtz said. "It'll probably taper off through 8 or 9 a.m. (Tuesday) with some lingering rain/snow mix through noon across the area."
Kurtz says most models indicate between 1-3 inches of snow by noon Tuesday, with most accumulation happening on grassy or elevated surfaces.
"The main impacts from this might be some slushy roads there during the morning commute hours," he said. "I don't think we'll see much in the way of icing on the roads, but could be some slick spots out there with slush on the roads."
A snow event in late April isn't super common, but it's also not unheard of in this part of the country, according to Kurtz.
"We're subject to winter weather to the end of April or even early May," he pointed out. "Not out of the realm of possibility. It's kind of a late little spring burst of snow before we get out of the spring time frame."
Highs on Tuesday will rise into the mid-to-upper 40s, but lows on Tuesday and Wednesday night will be unseasonably cool and drop into the mid-to-upper-20s.
That has prompted a Freeze Warning, which runs from 10 p.m. Tuesday to 9 a.m. Wednesday. Kurtz says any sensitive vegetation could be killed if left unprotected.
"The best thing you can do is cover up your plants with plastic or tarp," Kurtz said. "Even bring inside potted plants to kind of protect them. It looks like there'll be a good chunk, about 4-5 hours Wednesday of below freezing temperatures. We have a low of 26 in St. Joe for Wednesday morning, so it's going to be really frosty out there."
The winter weather will not last long, as highs are forecast to rebound into the 60s late this week and close to 70 degrees by Sunday.
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