Heavy Snow in Jackson, Kentucky

A social media report showed 4.4 inches of snow accumulation 1 mile northwest of Hurley just after 6 PM on the 16th. Snow continued for most of the evening across the county. By 830 PM a social media report of 6.1 inches was received from along KY-30 near the Jackson/Owsley county line. Power outages due to heavy wet snow occurred in the county.

A complex winter storm lifted across the Southeast US on January 16th, initially spreading a mix of light snow, sleet, and freezing rain across the eastern Kentucky during the morning hours. A nose of warm air changed the precipitation over to mainly rain and freezing rain by late morning and early afternoon. Eventually colder air filtered in aloft and eroded the warm nose enough to allow the precipitation to switch back over to snow. As this occurred, most of the precipitation became confined to a narrow but intense band of snow along the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau. The heavy snow led to thousands of power outages from McCreary and Whitley Counties, northward into Menifee County. As the evening wore on, the snow slowly shifted east and split up into multiple weaker bands. Most of the eastern Kentucky saw a warning-criteria snowfall with the exception of portions of Knott and Perry counties.