Freezing forecast: What to expect and how to prepare
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – “One thing that I can pretty much guarantee is that it’s gonna get super cold next week.”
WCBI Chief Meteorologist, Issac Williams, explains what we can expect.
“We’re going from the mid-sixties on Friday down to the twenties Friday night, well something’s gotta happen right?”
This major shift in temperatures and pressure is why strong storms are predicted to make their way through on Friday.
Even though chances for tornadic activity are low and community anticipation for snow is high, Issac said don’t lose focus.
“We don’t want people to skip past Friday and just worried about Monday’s or Tuesday’s cold. We need to be prepared for Friday’s storms like we always do around here. I know, I trust our viewers are always weather-aware. And then use the weekend to prepare for the cold.”
The first step in preparing is to gather information.
Get your weather updates from multiple sources, not just the weather app on your phone.
“If you just look at your app and see a snowflake icon on Monday and think it’s gonna snow, and that’s it… you’re really doing yourself a disservice. It could be telling you snow or it could be telling you sleet or freezing rain.”
Issac says this is why you need to watch your local news coverage to know specifics tailored to your location.
“You really need to dive into okay what does that snowflake mean? When might it snow? Is it gonna be Monday morning? Is it gonna be in the evening? How fast is the temperature gonna drop? You know, the app can’t tell you that.”
After you’ve been properly informed, it’s time to start prepping.
Keyton Blocher is the sales manager at Military Hardware in Columbus.
He says now is the time to run through your checklist.
“The end of this week is probably the best time to make sure your faucet covers aren’t broken. I would make sure all of your gas lines don’t have leaks so you can run heaters. I would make sure, you know if you have a wood fireplace, we’ve got fire starters. Making sure that you’re stocked up and not stuck in a hard place where it’s cold and you don’t have anything that you can do.”
And as for the big question: how bad is it really gonna get?
“I do expect at this point, we may have some degree of impact but I don’t think it will be a crippling type of storm for us.”
But as always…
“You know I always say, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
