Snow – Page 7 – Upland-South Science

We all remember the major/historic ice storm of January 2009 (which will obviously appear later in this list), but before that during the previous winter, some areas experienced their worst ice storm since the 1800s (that was discovered using tree rings) that wouldn’t be matched until that storm. Leaving this very significant winter storm to be largely forgotten.

Most of our classic winter storms, especially those involving ice are caused by what are referred to as overruning events. Where you have a stalled-out boundary just to the south of our area (as observed in the map above) separating shallow-arctic air and more moist subtropical air from the Gulf of Mexico. The warmer air from the south is less dense so it rises up in the atmosphere, leading to warm air in the lower to mid-levels of the atmosphere, with temperatures at or just below freezing on the surface. This leads to ice crystals (snow) melting and then refreezing at the surface (freezing rain) or freezing as ice pellets (sleet).

Areas closer to the TN border/boundary did stay just above freezing so areas like Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, and Murray did miss out on this event. The hardest hit areas were those areas along or north of US Highway 62 or from Bardwell to Paducah to Dawson Springs to Greenville to Cromwell and points north.

Why Was This Event Significant

This event produced a widespread 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch of ice across the area, with localized areas of up to 1 inch of ice from Crittenden/Webster County over toward Henderson/Owensboro. An 1/2 of an inch of ice is enough to bring powerlines and some heavier tree limbs down, and with some gusty winds even 1/4 of an inch of ice can do this. This was on top of 1 to 4 inches of snow and sleet.

Traffic issues from fallen trees/tree limbs and slick roads caused road closures, even some main roads like our parkways.

Widespread power outages resulted, with some customers having to wait nearly a week to get power back. Millions of dollars of damage also occurred as a result of trees and powerlines being knocked down.

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