Ohio’s gray Saturday is giving way to a clear, cold night, and the coldest air of the season so far arrives after midnight. Early-evening temperatures sat near 46 degrees in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and Athens, according to National Weather Service observations, but skies are clearing, winds are easing, and temperatures fall fast overnight. Lows by Sunday morning range from the upper 20s and low 30s across southern and central Ohio to the mid 30s along Lake Erie.
A Freeze Warning runs from midnight tonight until 10 a.m. Sunday for a wide band of southern and central Ohio. The National Weather Service in Wilmington expects lows in the upper 20s to lower 30s across its warning area, which includes Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Hamilton, Clermont, Brown and Highland counties, while the National Weather Service in Charleston, West Virginia, warns of temperatures as low as 31 degrees in southeast Ohio, including Lawrence County. The weather service says frost and freeze conditions could kill crops and sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing, so cover or bring in tender plants this evening and protect exposed pipes before the drop.
The Northeast is the last corner to clear tonight. Cleveland stays mostly cloudy with a low around 36 and only a small chance of a lingering lake shower early, while Akron and Youngstown turn partly cloudy and colder, near 32. In the Northwest, Toledo goes mostly clear with a low around 35, and Defiance drops to about 32 under clear skies — a frosty, quiet night across the Maumee Valley after a raw, windy day.
Central Ohio clears out for a hard frost: Columbus is mostly clear with a low around 33 and patchy frost after 4 a.m., and Dayton bottoms out near 32. The Southwest is coldest under the clearest skies — Cincinnati falls to about 32 with areas of frost after 3 a.m. In the Southeast, Athens drops to about 32 with areas of fog developing after 2 a.m., and Portsmouth is the coldest spot in the state forecast, near 29, with widespread frost and areas of fog before 9 a.m. Sunday.
Sunday repays the freeze in full. The National Weather Service tabular state forecast calls for sunny skies statewide, with highs from about 55 in Mansfield to 57 in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo and Columbus, 58 in Dayton and 59 in Athens. Frost and patchy fog greet early risers in the south, then sunshine takes over, though a southwest breeze gusts as high as 25 to 30 mph in the north.
The dry, mild stretch holds into the workweek. Monday stays sunny with highs from the mid 50s in the northeast to about 60 in the south, and Tuesday is the warmest day of the stretch, sunny with highs from about 61 in the north to 67 in the southeast. Clouds return Wednesday, rain chances climb Thursday as highs fall back into the upper 40s and 50s, and Friday turns colder still, with a rain-and-snow mix possible in the northeast.
For tonight, the to-do list is short and time-sensitive: get plants covered and pipes protected before midnight, expect a frosty windshield Sunday morning, and watch for patchy fog in the southeast river valleys around daybreak. After that, Ohio gets three straight days of sunshine to enjoy.
Photo: James St. John, CC BY