Winter weather returns to VW county

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Those who bought Punxatawney Phil’s prediction that spring was here found Mother Nature has a mean streak Monday when she dumped a new batch of snow on Van Wert County.

County Emergency Management Director Rick McCoy said the latest snowstorm totaled five inches locally by 9:30 Monday night, along with .15 inch of ice. McCoy said another half-inch to an inch of snow was possible by this morning, along with blowing and drifting, but the extra snow didn’t materialize.

While the latest snowfall was again not nearly as bad as what fell in Minnesota and other states farther west, it again caused local schools to cancel and affected other events and organizations.

The county was under a winter weather advisory until 6 a.m. today because of the blowing and drifting snow, while McCoy said there’s two more storms heading this way yet this week.

The first will hit Thursday and likely continue into Friday, while the second is expected to hit sometime Sunday and possibly continue into Monday. The EMA director said he was a bit worried that Thursday’s storm could bring more freezing rain to the area, but said it would depend on how warm it is then.

“The storm is expected to bring lots of moisture with it, but temps will be critical in determining what we get,” McCoy said.

As of now, there is a 40 percent of rain during the day on Thursday, with a 70 percent of rain or freezing rain that evening. On Friday, forecasters are calling for what could be rain, freezing rain or a wintry mix that includes the possibility of more snow.