Columbus-area weather: 3-4 inches of snow early Wednesday -- then sleet, melt, freeze

Monroe Trombly, The Columbus Dispatch
·2 min read
Keith Gengras, walks his beagle mix, Rex, as snow falls Sunday in Clintonville.
Keith Gengras, walks his beagle mix, Rex, as snow falls Sunday in Clintonville.

See the updated weather forecast for this week.

Fresh on the heels of a winter storm that dropped a few inches of snow around the Columbus area, more accumulating snow is slated for early Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

Columbus' and central Ohio's Wednesday morning commute could be problematic as another 3 to 4 inches of snow hits overnight, with accumulations in Union County and further northwest as high as half a foot in some areas where the snow is expected to be the heaviest, according to James Gibson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

And that will just be the start of headaches for motorists. The snowfall is forecast to begin around 1 a.m. Wednesday and continue to fall until around 10 a.m., when it is expected turn over to sleet and drizzle, potentially causing icy roadways, Gibson said.

Temperatures are expected to slowly rise from around 28 degrees overnight to a high of around 41 degrees during the day Wednesday, then fall again Wednesday night, he said.

"You're going to have all that water from melting snow and the rain, and then it freezes again," Gibson said.

Early Thursday morning, with temperatures again below freezing, the area could get a light dusting of new snow atop the freezing standing water, making travel particularly tricky, Gibson said. Off and on snow showers are then expected to linger throughout the day Thursday, he said.

Are any Columbus-area school districts canceling school?

At least two inches of snow fell Sunday around the Columbus area, with larger amounts of more than 4 inches in some places in central Ohio, mostly to the northwest. The snowfall prompted a winter weather warning and some school districts opted to cancel in-person classes for Monday, including Olentangy Local Schools.

Snow showers are likely Monday, but not much accumulation is expected.

Monroe Trombly covers breaking and trending news.

Dispatch reporter Bill Bush contributed to this report.

mtrombly@dispatch.com

@monroetrombly

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus weather: More accumulating snow on the way