A winter storm is coming this weekend. But will Evansville get snow or ice?

EVANSVILLE – When you wake up Sunday morning, the winter storm will already be here. However, what you will see out of your window is still uncertain.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service say disturbances will arrive in the Evansville area anywhere from late Saturday night to early Sunday and continue into Monday. As of Thursday, Vanderburgh County was slated to get a mix of snow, sleet and — worst of all — freezing rain.

But “the models still don’t quite agree,” NWS meteorologist Rachel Trevino told the Courier & Press Thursday morning. The storm’s path can shift, drastically changing what kind of precipitation the area could see. It is expected to bring anything from heavy snow to the north to normal rain to the south.

The updated bulletin sent by the Paducah, Kentucky office of the NWS Thursday morning did not include an exact timing of the storm or any predicted amount of precipitation. They expect clearer details by Friday, senior forecaster Keith Cooley wrote.

Whatever comes, it will likely affect travel – and possibly power outages. The latter, senior meteorologist Derrick Snyder said in a bulletin Wednesday, could lead to a “very serious situation,” especially given the bitter cold that will sweep into the area after the storm passes Monday. Lowers can dive as far as the single digits.

Talk of freezing rain and power outages inevitably calls for talk of devastating ice storm in 2009 that killed 35 people across the Midwest and left 700,000 people in the area without power, some for weeks.

As of Thursday, Trevino said, NWS forecasts don’t show anything that severe.

“We can see some areas that will see some issues, but we’re not looking at that kind of thing right now,” she said. “But it’s always good to remember what it was like and be prepared.”

This article originally appeared on the Evansville Courier & Press: The winter storm is coming this weekend. Does Evansville get snow or ice?