Up-and-down winter might bring snow
Calmer, colder days are forecast for the rest of the workweek after Wednesday’s strong thunderstorms flooded roads in central and southern Ohio.
Snow showers are forecast for late tonight. Franklin County could pick up a half-inch to an inch of snow and Delaware and Licking counties could get an inch. Areas south of Franklin County could get a half-inch or less, said meteorologist Brian Coniglio of the National Weather Service’s Wilmington office.
Today’s high is to reach only the mid-40s and Friday’s the upper 30s.
The recent up-anddown temperatures are not
unprecedented; central Ohio sits on a border of warmer air from the South and cold air from Canada, Coniglio said. However, the more pronounced up-anddown weather this year is due to a strong “temperature gradient,” in which the central Ohio temperature is changing rapidly across a shorter distance than usual, he said.
“This year, the effect seems to be more magnified than normal,” Coniglio said. “No one seems to know why.”
Based on radar data, the National Weather Service said Wednesday it believes that two tornadoes were responsible for damage near Leesburg and Greenfield in northern Highland County and possibly western Ross County. An NWS survey team will view the area today to confirm its belief and determine the magnitude of the tornado on the EF scale and the location of damage.
Damage survey work was conducted Wednesday in Clermont County, and additional surveys will be conducted as damage reports continue to arrive, the service said.
Lightning strikes might have caused two earlymorning house fires southeast of Columbus on Wednesday. No one was injured in either. Fire destroyed a house in Fairfield County’s Bloom Township and damaged a building that housed an apartment and a flooring business in Logan in Hocking County.
Bloom Township Fire Chief Terry Gill said lightning probably caused the house fire on Fairfield Farms Drive because the blaze burned from the roof down and apparently started around the time that neighbors heard a loud thunderclap.
Logan Fire Chief Brian Robertson said the State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the building fire on Railroad Avenue.
Elsewhere, Pickaway County’s Logan Elm school district closed Wednesday due to flooding and power outages, and a mudslide near Scioto Trail State Park in Ross County reduced Route 23 northbound to one lane. Roads were reported flooded in parts of southeastern Ohio, and flash-flood warnings were issued.
Local emergencymanagement agencies and sheriff’s offices urged drivers to use caution and not to attempt to drive through flooded areas of roads.
Based on radar data, the National Weather Service said Wednesday it believes that two tornadoes were responsible for damage near Leesburg and Greenfield in northern Highland County and possibly western Ross County.