By Angela Hatton
Paducah, KY – National Weather Service forecasters say they did not expect to see the amount of snow hitting the Purchase counties in Kentucky, and southern Illinois. NWS had predicted one to two inches, but forecaster Kelly Hooper says the region could get more than five inches by three PM today. Hooper says this is because of an effect meteorologists call frontal genesis, which lifts the front of a system.
"And it gets enhanced and it'll dump a lot of snow in a short period of time. Most of the models really won't catch up on, you can most times you can only pick this up looking at satellite or radar as it's happening."
Hooper says the NWS in Paducah noticed the storm enhancement between six and seven this morning. They then upgraded their advisory to a Winter Storm Warning. Hooper says temperatures are likely to stay below freezing for the rest of the week. Forecasters predict between one and two inches more snow Wednesday.