After thick fog already obscured the familiar shapes of silos and barns on Lancaster County farms Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a 6:46 p.m. special weather statement that “dense fog will blanket the area until late evening.”

Melting snow and temperatures above freezing contributed to the afternoon fog, which is expected to remain until around 10 or 11 p.m. tonight.  The NWS advisory notes that  visibility may be reduced to a quarter of a mile and reminds drivers to use low beam headlights during travel.

The next round of snow, which was expected to start at 7 p.m. tonight, seems to be holding off. Forecasters predict that it could deposit the largest snowfall of the winter overnight Wednesday through 7 a.m. Thursday morning.

We will update this story as more information becomes available.