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Icy Valley forecast for Friday
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Hayden, 3 1/2, and mom, Amanda Taylor of Hubbard, didn't let a little snow and cold stop their fun as they played on the hills in Wick Recreation area in Mill Creek Park
Snow Fall
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Winter Storm 2009
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The following is a series of images from Saturday, January 10 in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. From Western Reserve Road to East Market Street, residents dealt with a large accumulation of snow by working and playing.
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The temperature could drop to 10 below zero early Friday.
Baby, it’s cold outside — and it’s about to get a lot colder.
The temperature in the Mahoning Valley could drop as low as 10 below zero early Friday, said Marty Mullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.
The wind chill factor could make the temperature feel like 25 below zero, he said.
“Fortunately, the winds won’t be horrible, but it’s definitely going to be very cold,” Mullen said.
If it drops to 10 below zero, it would be the first time the Valley’s temperature dropped into negative-double-digit territory since Jan. 19, 1994, when it was 22 degrees below zero.
Jan. 19, 1994, is also the coldest day in the Valley’s recorded weather history, which dates back to 1897.
It will warm up after Friday morning, but the temperatures will still be well below normal through at least the middle of next week, Mullen said.
During the first 13 days of January, the average temperature was 24.3 degrees, only 1.1 degree higher than typical for that time frame, he said.
“But we’ll make this month’s average significantly lower over the next week,” Mullen said. “We’re going to be colder than normal for at least a week. Unfortunately, it’s going to be colder than normal for a while.”
The average high for this time of the year in the Valley is 32 degrees and the average low is 17 degrees.
Today’s high is expected to be 9 degrees. The high for Friday is supposed to be 5 degrees at best.
The low for Friday night could drop to 5 below zero.
The high for Saturday is supposed to be 15 to 20 degrees, with 10 degrees as the low.
The highs for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are expected to hit the mid-20s with lows between 10 and 15 degrees.
If there’s any good news it’s that the snowfall won’t be as heavy as it’s been in the past week, Mullen said.
“We’ll still get snow, but it will be the light, fluffy kind, which will blow away,” he said.
As of early Wednesday, 18.2 inches of snow fell on the Valley in January.
The Valley’s average snowfall for the entire month of January is 13.9 inches.
The most snow to fall in the area in January was in 1999 with 36.4 inches.
skolnick@vindy.com