Melodie Phelps, News Editor
Monticello — Wayne Countians were digging out early this week from a winter storm
that hit the area Friday night and Saturday. Officially, five inches of snow
fell in the county during the storm, though totals may vary at different
locations around the county.
J.D. Rogers, local observer for the National Weather Service, recorded
five inches of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. on Saturday, January 30 and also
on Sunday, January 31. He noted that this is the largest local snowfall
total since six inches was recorded on January 17, 2003.
It was a storm that local residents had been watching throughout much of
last week, as weather forecasts showed the Lake Cumber-land area right in
the path of heaviest snowfall predictions. Many local residents were out
several days before the first flakes began to fall, stocking up on groceries
or other necessities just in case.
Being prepared helped county road crews, as they worked throughout the
storm on Friday night and into Saturday. County Judge-Executive Greg Rankin
said that crews took a break late Saturday and then spent all day Sunday
working on cleaning county roads.
Snow began to fall around 5 p.m. on Friday, and the heaviest snowfall
occurred overnight. There were snow showers throughout the day Saturday,
before the storm finally moved out of the area.
Rankin said he and other county officials stayed in touch with the
National Weather Service and they had emergency plans in place, just in case
of power outages or other dire circumstances.
"We had emergency shelters prepared if we needed them. Fortunately, we
didn't need them," said Rankin. "This was a light snow and there were no
major power outages."
He hoped that by the end of the day Monday, road crews would have worked
through all areas of the county. Temperatures climbed to 40 degrees on
Monday, making that job a little easier.
Local school children got a break from classes because of the storm.
Both local districts called off school on Friday in anticipation of the
storm and classes were canceled at Monticello and Wayne County on Monday.
The weekend snowfall totals pushed Wayne County above normal for the
month of January. Rogers, in his monthly weather summary, noted that 9.4
inches total snowfall was recorded during the past month, well above the
average of 6.4 inches.
Total precipitation for January was 5.88 inches, which was above the
average of 4.39 inches.
The month was much colder than normal, with the average temperature of
29.7 degrees. Normally, January has an average temperature of 33.2 degrees.
Rogers noted that this is the coldest January since 2003, when the average
temperature was 28.8 degrees.
The minimum temperature for January was 3 degrees, which was recorded at
8:15 a.m. on January 31. The maximum temperature was 57 degrees, which was
recorded on January 19, January 21, and January 23.
