Kentucky Transportation Cabinet highway crews are prepared to respond to another round of winter precipitation on the way for Wednesday into Thursday morning with extreme cold temperatures to follow.
Highway crews spent much of the day, yesterday, maintaining and repairing equipment to have everything ready to roll.
We're expecting a round of freezing rain and sleet to start moving across the region on Wednesday morning followed by 6 to 10 inches of snowfall over about a 12 hour period.
The National Weather Service is now predicting more freezing rain and not sleet on the front end.
Arrival time of freezing rain and sleet for Paducah is about 9 a.m. with arrival about an hour later for Mayfield and an hour or two after that for Madisonville/Hopkinsville.
It is expected to transition to snow after about 3 p.m. for Paducah with the changeover to snow in the Madisonville/Hopkinsville area an hour or two later.
Hopkinsville and other southern border counties should expect more in the way of freezing rain and sleet with 1/10 to 1/4 inch of freezing rain. All other areas should be below 1/10 inch of ice with maybe ½ to 1 inch of sleet, then snow on top of that.
At times on Wednesday evening and overnight we can expect 1 to 2 inches an hour snowfall rate with totals in the 6 to 8 inch range.
Snow in this winter event is expected to be not quite as fluffy as the last one, but fluffier than we normally get in this region. With substantial winds from the northwest there will be more potential for drifting with this event.
Highway crews in each county have divided into two teams to provide around the clock response. Crews will likely be working 14 to 16 hour shifts to provide an optimum response level.