First Alert Weather In-Depth: Flash freeze potential

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — It is really cold, but you could say we had a really a fine day in Rochester for Valentine’s Day. But we are talking about a very significant change in the temperature across the country, and this is going to be amplified by this front too as we go into Thursday.

It is going to be a big change from one side of the front of the other. We are looking at temperatures in the 50s and 60s on one side and then it goes back to winter on the other side of the front. So we will go from unseasonably warm weather to unseasonably cold weather.

Normally that is not a big problem. However, the issue is this drop in the temperature will happen very rapidly. As a result, Thursday evening we will be in the mid-50s, but in a matter of maybe five or six hours, the temperature will be dropping by some 30 degrees. We expect that we are heading into the mid-20s.

So what does that mean? If you have rain coming down and melting snow, then you get that rapid drop of the temperature, eventually, there is a flash freeze potential. Again, this will happen Thursday and into Thursday night. The concern is when it happens so rapidly black ice will develop on any untreated roadways. Naturally, that would be a big problem as we go through the end of the week.
Let’s see if we get any kind of warmer weather beyond this mess for later Thursday night.