http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/winter-weather-expected-later-week-ozarks_56527.mp3
Spring will arrive in the Ozarks tomorrow with snow looming in the forecast. The National Weather Service expects a winter storm to impact the Ozarks starting Thursday. Mike Griffin is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield…
"Basically what we're looking at is colder air moving in the area by the middle to end of the week, and at the same time a storm system is gonna be developing and gathering out to our southwest across the panhandle of Texas. That's gonna gather a lot of moisture off the Gulf of Mexico and throw it over into this cold air that's gonna be over the Ozarks Thursday into Friday, even into the weekend. And it looks like Thursday and Thursday night will be the best chance of seeing some, possibly some accumulating wet snow across the region," he said.
According to Griffin, it’s hard to tell just how much snow will accumulate. He says there are a few factors playing into that…
"The tricky part about this system is temperatures are going to be marginal--just at or slightly above freezing. It's also late March, so your sun angle's a little bit higher up in the sky, so even though we have a storm system in the area, that solar radiation's still acting on the atmosphere and on the ground, so ground temperatures are gonna be warm, temperatures at the surface are gonna be just at or maybe above freezing so if we do have snow falling the question is, how much is it gonna stick and how long is it gonna last? So, right now we're thinking a couple of inches of slushy wet snow may be possible, but it doesn't look like it's gonna be a major winter storm," he said.
Temperatures will be well below the average of close to 60 for this time of year. Highs will be in the 30s Thursday and Friday and in the 40s well into next week. Griffin expects below average temperatures for the next seven to ten days.