COLUMBIA - The first accumulating snowfall of the season is expected Thursday night, followed by chilling air for the weekend.

Clouds will increase Thursday morning. Rain will push in by mid-late afternoon. Rain is expected to transition to light snow showers Thursday evening, continuing through the night before exiting central Missouri before sunrise Friday morning.

Roads will remain okay Thursday night due to continual melting as temps during the event will be in the low/mid 30s. However, visibility will decrease with the snowfall. Patchy ice is slightly possible Friday morning on bridges and overpasses as temps drop into the mid to upper 20s. We expect MODOT will pretreat for this, but it wouldn't hurt to use caution on bridges. 

While an expected snow total of around 0.5" to 1.5" is expected over much of central and northern Missouri, warm ground temps will lead to a continual melting of snowfall and only a dusting of actual accumulation is expected on grassy/elevated surfaces.

The coldest air of the season sets in Friday with highs only in the 30s and nightly temps dropping into the 10s for the first time since March. However, winds will be gusting up to 35mph on Friday and this will lead to wind chills only reaching the 20s throughout the day and wind chills around 10-degrees, if not in the single digits, for Saturday morning. 

Please keep in mind that when temps fall to near 20F or lower, water spigots and pipes outside of your home will not remain warm from the radiational heat of your house and may freeze if not winterized. Please take time to unhook gardening hoses from these pipes and cover them.

The average first snowfall (with at least 0.01" accumulation) is November 29th. The last year it occured this early was in 1997, on November 3rd. 

Tune in this evening to KOMU 8 News for the latest details from chief meteorologist Kenton Gewecke and bright and early with meteorologist Tim Schmidt beginning at 4:30am.

You can also get the latest weather information on the free KOMU 8 Weather & Traffic app for your mobile or tablet devices.