Ohio is spending its Saturday morning in the 40s, and the coldest night of the season so far is on the way. Mid-morning temperatures ranged from about 42 degrees in Toledo to 43 in Youngstown, where light rain was falling, 45 in Columbus, 46 in Cleveland and 48 in Cincinnati, according to National Weather Service observations. The bigger development is an expanded Freeze Warning: in a 9:37 a.m. update, the National Weather Service in Wilmington added Franklin and Pickaway counties to the warning already covering southern Ohio, with temperatures as low as 31 degrees expected in the Columbus area from midnight tonight until 10 a.m. Sunday.
For the rest of today, highs top out between about 50 degrees in Akron and 55 in Cincinnati and Portsmouth, with most Ohio cities at 52 to 54. Northwest and west winds stay brisk in the north, gusting as high as 28 mph around Cleveland and Akron, making the low 50s feel rawer along Lake Erie, where this morning’s Small Craft Advisory for nearshore waters from Maumee Bay to Vermilion expired at 10 a.m.
The Northeast remains the wet corner of the state. Youngstown has rain showers likely, with a 60 percent chance of precipitation, Cleveland has a 40 percent chance of rain showers, and Akron has a 40 percent chance, mainly before 2 p.m., the National Weather Service in Cleveland said. Amounts stay light — less than a tenth of an inch — but with the wind, it is a damp, raw afternoon across the snowbelt and the lakeshore…