Published: February 03, 2009 01:53 pm            

Winter storm Tuesday brings variety of weather conditions

Monticello — A winter storm that began early on Tuesday, January 27, brought a

variety of weather to Wayne County, including freezing rain, ice, sleet and

snow. But local residents were spared many of the problems that other

Kentuckians faced last week, as they braved ice and cold without

electricity.

Power outages across the state left several hundred thousand Kentuckians

without electricity, and many were still waiting for power to be restored

when this edition went to press. There were outages in every county in the

South Kentucky RECC service area, including Wayne County, shortly after the

freezing rain began to fall on Tuesday morning.

According to a statement from South Kentucky RECC officials, at the peak

there were about 7,500 customers without service on January 27. By 4 p.m.

that afternoon, that number was down to 3,000. At that point, power had been

restored to all customers in Wayne County and crews worked through the night

to restore power to customers in Pulaski County, Russell County, Lincoln

County and Casey County, where the majority of issues still remained.

According to J.D. Rogers, local observer for the National Weather

Service, freezing rain began in Wayne County during the early morning of

January 27. Rogers said that after depositing a thin layer of ice, the

temperature increased to above 32 degrees by 8 a.m.

Rain continued through mid-morning on Wednesday, January 28, when a cold

front changed the precipitation to snow, according to Rogers. He said snow

ended around noon, with about one-inch on the ground.

Total precipitation for this weather event was 3.53 inches, according to

Rogers.

Classes were dismissed at local schools for much of last week, and an

early morning snowfall on Monday, February 2, also meant another day snow

day for local students.

In a monthly weather summary, Rogers noted that local precipitation for

January was two inches above normal, at 6.39 inches.

Locally, Wayne County received 2.5 inches of snowfall in January,

compared to the average of 6.4 inches.

January was colder than normal, according to Rogers. The average

temperature last month was 30.9 degrees, compared to the normal temperature

of 33.2 degrees.

The coldest temperature of the month was -1 degrees, which was recorded

on January 16. The warmest temperature of the month was 62 degrees, which

was recorded on January 4.

Rogers also noted that daily minimum temperatures of less than 15

degrees were recorded on seven days during the month. The -1 degree

temperature, recorded on January 16, was the coldest Monticello has been

since it was -3 degrees on January 18, 2003.

        

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