Active pattern brings several winter weather chances
Dry weather continues for the next few days with seasonable temperatures
WEATHER HEADLINES
- Mountain snow Tuesday evening from a clipper system
- Blustery conditions overnight; Gusts 20-30 at times
- Late week winter storm is possible with accumulating snow
- Another possible storm next Monday-Tuesday
TONIGHT
Winds have increased this afternoon as a quick-moving clipper zipped through. Snow showers remain possible in the western New River Valley and along the Greenbrier Valley of West Virginia where a coating to an inch or so for elevations above 3,500 feet.
Elsewhere tonight, winds are expected to remain blustery, gusting to 30mph at times along the ridges overnight. Lows slip to the upper 20s to low 30s by sunrise Wednesday under partly cloudy skies.
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
Dry conditions look to return for the middle of the week. Mostly sunny skies expected on Wednesday with increasing clouds on Thursday. High on both days in the 40s and low 50s.
FRIDAY
There has been plenty of back-and-forth in the models today, which is expected several days before a potential storm. The overall trend today has been a southerly jog which would limit the snowfall in much of our forecast area Friday, leaving most of it in the North Carolina Mountains up to the Grayson Highlands.
Much of the uncertainty is based on the path and strength of another disturbance across the northeast which could either push our storm south, or allow it to come more north, which could bring snow farther toward our area. There are several scenarios which could play out with this.
MOST LIKELY IMPACTED BY SNOW: The most likely areas to be impacted the most by snow are those along the VA/NC border toward the Grayson Highlands and into the mountains of North Carolina where several inches of wet snow are possible.
LEAST LIKELY IMPACTED BY SNOW: Unless the track changes drastically, areas in the Highlands and along the Interstate 64 corridor will be least impacted by snow. Very light amounts, if any, are anticipated here.
THE BATTLEGROUND: The battleground area will be those hometowns in the New River Valley, Roanoke Valley, Piedmont and Central VA where any shift north would increase snowfall totals up to the 460 corridor. Likewise, a southerly shift would bring lesser amounts here.
HOW MUCH SNOW COULD BE POSSIBLE?
With the air not being all that cold and ground still relatively warm, it would be a very wet snow, so we’re not expecting a big storm. Areas along the VA/NC border toward the Grayson Highlands may see several inches, with much lower (if any) amounts to the north. We will have specific region-by-region numbers on Wednesday.
ROAD IMPACTS: Road pavement temperatures will likely be near or slightly above freezing during the onset of precipitation early Friday morning. If snow rates can overcome the warm ground, then we may have issues with snow-covered roads along areas such as Interstate 77.
THE WEEKEND
The weekend remains quiet with mainly sunny skies and seasonable conditions as highs reach the mid and upper upper 40s.
ANOTHER STORM NEXT WEEK?
Models suggest a more potent winter storm could be coming together for Monday and Tuesday of next week. We’ll have details on that one as we get closer to the weekend.
