Trending
It's been years since Washington County had a white Christmas, but this year may be different.
"Yes, it's likely it will happen," said Andy Roche, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, W.Va.
He said Thursday will see rain showers, perhaps heavy rain at times, but then temperatures will drop quickly by Thursday afternoon.
"Precipitation will start sticking through Thursday night and continue through Christmas," Roche said. "There will be one or two inches on the ground by 7 a.m., so you'll at least see white stuff on the ground."
The NWS notes a "white Christmas" is defined as having an inch or more of snow on the ground on Christmas morning.
Roche said no data was available for Marietta, but since 1948, Columbus has only had a white Christmas about 25 percent of the time. From 1981 through 2010, the area experienced a white Christmas only eight times, with Columbus' most recent white Christmas occurring in 2010.
Roche said its is still a few days from Christmas and things can change, but weather models have shown the last couple of days there will be one to two inches of snow Christmas morning.
"It could be flurrying throughout the day, which will make it very beautiful," he said.
"But for travelers, the roads will be slippery, so there will be difficult driving conditions."
He said the quickly changing temperatures will make the roads freeze if they aren't treated Thursday night into Friday.
Roche said it will stay cold Friday with high temperatures in the low 20s, then warm up to the mid-30s on Saturday with temperatures in the 40s on Sunday.
Washington County Engineer Roger Wright said the county does not typically pretreat roads as the Ohio Department of Transportation does.
"We do not have liquid deicers and no way to disperse them," he said.
The road crews coordinate with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, which monitors the roads.
"We get phone calls from the sheriff as far as road conditions," Wright explained. "Once the roads start getting icy, we'll treat them."
He said when the weather goes from rain to ice and snow, those are the most difficult road conditions for any highway department. With the dynamic weather, they put a plan in place in case the storm occurs.
"It would be great to have a white Christmas, but it would be a challenge for our staff," Wright said.
Rain, ice and snow are also a challenge for ODOT crews, who also monitor weather conditions when adverse conditions are forecast.
"Any time we have the opportunity to pretreat, we do as it helps keep the ice from sticking to the road," said Ashley Rittenhouse, public information officer for ODOT District 10.
She said when it is just raining, pretreating with brine is wasted, as the rain washes it away.
"Our managers at the garages are tuned into the forecast all the time and will keep an eye on it," she said. "Our employees, whether holiday, daytime, middle of the night, their primary responsibility is snow and ice."
Rittenhouse asked that people watch out for the road crews treating roads.
"(Road crews) are taking care of (motorists), so we ask in return people take care of them," she said.