Don't look now, but I see the "F" word in the forecast

Cape Girardeau received a dusting of snow from Winter Storm "AC/DC", about what I expected. I'm a bit surprised, however, that Southern Illinois saw widespread 2-4 inch totals. Cobden, only 22 miles from Cape as the crow flies, reported 3 inches.

The next system, potentially Winter Storm "Beatles", is already on the horizon for Wednesday. Cape Girardeau's forecast looks ominous:

WEDNESDAY: MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF FREEZING RAIN OR SLEET IN THE MORNING...THEN A CHANCE OF FREEZING RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S. SOUTHEAST WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 30 PERCENT.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT: MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 50 PERCENT CHANCE OF FREEZING RAIN. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S.

THURSDAY: MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 30 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S.

The bad news is that temperatures should remain below freezing, so any precipitation that falls will stick. The good news, however, is that the system is expected to be rather weak, with limited moisture available.

So far, the National Weather Service has been careful to call the system an "event" instead of a "storm". Here is their Hazardous Weather Outlook:

ANOTHER WINTER PRECIPITATION EVENT APPEARS LIKELY WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION MAY BEGIN AS EARLY AS TUESDAY NIGHT IN THE FORM OF LIGHT SNOW. AS WARMER AIR MOVES IN ALOFT...A MIXTURE OF WINTER PRECIPITATION TYPES IS EXPECTED ON WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION WILL END ON THURSDAY.

IT IS STILL TOO EARLY TO PRECISELY DETERMINE PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS AND TYPES. PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS ARE THAT MAINLY FREEZING RAIN WILL OCCUR SOUTH OF A LINE FROM CARBONDALE ILLINOIS TO MADISONVILLE KENTUCKY. A MIXTURE OF SLEET AND SNOW APPEARS MORE LIKELY OVER SOUTHWEST INDIANA AND NEARBY PORTIONS OF ILLINOIS AND KENTUCKY.

With a lack of moisture available, the storm is probably only capable of dropping about 0.10 of an inch of ice -- if that. Then again, even a tiny amount of freezing rain is too much.