WDBJ7 Archive: Latest winter wallop right on time

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - The largest January snowfall in Virginia history might go all the way back to 1772, when both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson recorded three feet of snow from a single storm.

But we’ve also had some deep drifts in the years since this television station went on the air.

January 1966 brought four days of snowfall exceeding six inches. We reported that more than a foot fell on January 22nd alone. And by the end of the month more than 41 inches of snow had accumulated in the Roanoke area.

January 1987 brought a one-two punch, two storms in two days, that delivered 23 inches of frozen precipitation.

Many Roanokers remember the Blizzard of 96, which brought more record-setting snow to western Virginia. Two feet fell in some areas - as much as four feet in the mountains.

And as the storm ended, high winds arrived, creating deep snow drifts and making travel almost impossible.

With major storms 30 years apart in 1966 and 1996, we were right on time for another winter wallop in 2026.