Snow likely this weekend but accumulation not expected

Snow is in the forecast Friday and into Saturday morning, but accumulations aren't expected, according to the National Weather Service in Paducah.

Greg Meffert, meteorologist with the NWS, said the winter storm watch in effect for this evening and Saturday morning includes Perry County in southeast Missouri, but not the counties to the south.

"The line goes from there westward across southern Illinois, through Carbondale and Harrisburg, into northwest Kentucky," Meffert said. "Most of southeast Missouri is not included at this time," he said in an interview at approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

That doesn't mean a few flakes won't fly. Meffert said the chances of getting wet beginning after 3 p.m. Friday are "pretty high, but overall amounts are not going to be significant," likely staying below a quarter of an inch, and likely to be mostly rain, outside of the winter storm watch area.

Inside the watch area, he said, the forecast is at about the 1-inch range.

Meffert said it's "a pretty rare thing" to have significant snowfall in April, adding that the most recent accumulation totals he could find on record were in 1971 in the Van Buren area, when a storm dumped between 1 and 4 inches of snow during the month of April.

"But that was 47 years ago," he said.

South of Perry County, this weekend, Meffert said, "less than a dusting" is expected, "unless things change drastically."

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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