Look for a load of snow today

The snow is to start falling today beginning at noon or 1 p.m. and won’t stop anytime soon. The Mahoning Valley is expected to receive 3 to 5 inches of snow today, said Dan Leins, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.

It doesn’t get any better after midnight.

An additional 2 to 4 inches are expected after midnight, and then another inch during the day Wednesday.

With the 2.2 inches of snow that fell this morning, this is the second snowiest February on record in the Mahoning Valley.

As of 9:30 a.m. today, 24.6 inches of snow has fallen on the area this month. No. 1 on the February list is 2003 with 26.4 inches. That could easily be surpassed with the predicted snowfall for today and Wednesday.

The average snowfall in February for the Valley is 10.4 inches.

Also, the snow that fell this morning brings the total accumulation for the Valley this winter to 74 inches. That’s good enough for the ninth snowiest winter on record in the area.

No. 8 on the list is 77.6 inches during the 1987-1988 winter season. We can easily surpass that amount later today.

No. 1 on the list is 90.2 inches that fell during the 2006-2007 winter season.

The Valley’s average snowfall for March is 10.4 inches.