Winter storm watch issued across north SC Midlands with heavy ice expected Sunday
Five north Midlands counties have been put under a winter storm watch by the National Weather Service as predictions for a heavy ice storm this weekend come into clearer focus.
Chesterfield, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster and Newberry counties are under a winter storm watch beginning 12 a.m. Sunday through the afternoon.
The warning could be extended further south into Richland County, John Quagliariello with the National Weather Service Columbia said in a briefing Thursday afternoon.
The agency is most concerned about ice accumulation north of and around I-20, with a high confidence that ice will gather but a low confidence of how close it will be to the I-20 corridor, Quagliariello said.
“20, 30 miles on either side of I-20, that’s where we have uncertainty,” Quagliariello said. “Some of those areas could be all rain, and some could have some significant freezing rain impacts, and it’s really hard to pinpoint where that’s going to be.”
He said with 2-3 days to go before the storm hits, there is still time to modify the forecast before bad weather arrives.
Some northern areas could see a quarter inch of ice accumulation or more, “which could certainly result in numerous downed tree limbs, trees, power lines,” and could result in some power outages, he said.
Quagliariello added that snow and sleet are possible late Saturday and very early Sunday, “which could result in some hazardous travel” on bridges on untreated roadways, but that will likely turn to freezing rain by 3 or 4 a.m. Sunday.
The freezing rain could persist into the afternoon, when it will likely shift to rain before potentially turning back to light snow flurries at the tail end of the storm.
It has not snowed in the Midlands since Jan. 6, 2017, when about a tenth of an inch was recorded, according to the National Weather Service.
Temperatures over the weekend and into Monday will fluctuate, falling below freezing Saturday and Sunday nights across the north and parts of the central Midlands. The temperature is likely to hover around the low 40s Sunday, rising into the mid to high 40s by Monday.
With the cold nights, the weather service warns black ice is possible Sunday night into Monday morning.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 4:40 PM.
