Winter is upon us. From indoors, a winter snowfall can be a beautiful sight, but for our county officials, it can present unique challenges.
Snow, sleet and ice and their impact on our counties play a significant role in the all-hazard planning and preparation our County Emergency Management Directors and staff members must do.
Recently, Kentucky Emergency Management officials, including KACo Emergency Management Liaison Jon Kovach, attended a presentation at the State Emergency Operations Center.
Mike Kochasic of the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Louisville office led the presentation.
The National Weather Service is expecting an El Nino to occur this winter, which will generally lead to a warmer and dryer winter for Kentucky.
However, any one storm, such as the extreme cold in December 2022, snow of 2015, or ice of 2008 could bring impacts to the region, so, it's always good to prepare.
Beginning this winter, any storm with 4 inches or more of forecasted snow will automatically generate a winter storm warning. Snow squalls are particularly dangerous, and while rare, they can bring blizzardlike conditions with white outs on roadways.
To help county officials plan for the inevitable winter storm, the NWS recommends:
- joining your local NWS email briefing list,
- signing up for Interactive NWS (iNWS) at inws.ncep.noaa.gov and selecting the appropriate county, which will send any alerts issued by the NWS via email, text, or both; and
- knowing where to find the latest information on the NWS website (weather.gov/forecastpoints).
Updated forecast information for the entire state can be found at weather.gov/lmk/winter.
All these tools can help our counties be better prepared this winter.
To view the entire NWS presentation, click here.
