Wintry precipitation might be returning to the Aiken area on Tuesday and Wednesday after making an appearance here in late January.
“People need to stay tuned to whatever weather source they use and keep up to date on what is being reported,” said Hunter Coleman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Columbia, on Sunday night. “Right now, there is a chance for significant icing to occur.”
A cold front is scheduled to push through late this afternoon and evening. Behind that, arctic air will be “building down” from the north, according to Coleman. Two upper level disturbances then will move in, bringing moisture. The first probably will arrive on Tuesday. The other is expected to begin affecting the weather on Wednesday.
A low pressure system eventually will develop off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts. It will strengthen and move northeast, up the coast.
“For wintry precipitation, we're probably looking at a time frame from Tuesday night through Wednesday,” Coleman said. “We're pretty confident that the precipitation will begin as rain. If it does change over to wintry precipitation down Aiken's way, we think freezing rain would be more likely than snow. But right now, we're not really sure where the line is where it (the precipitation) changes from rain to freezing rain will set up.”
The chance of precipitation during the day on Tuesday and again on Tuesday night is 70 percent. The chance is 70 percent to 80 percent on Wednesday.
“As we get closer to the events, those values likely will go up,” Coleman said.
The high on Tuesday will be 37 degrees in the Aiken area, and the low overnight will be 31 or 32 degrees. The high on Wednesday will be 35 degrees.
“The precipitation will end early on Thursday,” Coleman said.
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C., she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.