ROANOKE, Va. – All eyes are on the weekend, as forecast data signals a winter storm affecting southwest and central Virginia Saturday into very early Sunday.
We’ll walk you through what we know (as of Tuesday, 1/2/2024) and what we aim to find out.
At the moment, accumulating snow, ice and rain are all fair game.
How much of each you see is entirely dependent on the exact location of low-pressure riding up the East Coast and the Appalachians.
The farther south our area of low pressure goes, the more expanded the accumulating snow becomes.
If, however, this area of low pressure rides farther north and west, then we’d see a sharp line between snow, ice and rain from northwest to southeast.
A difference of 50-to-100 miles in the storm track ultimately changes what you see.
While we can’t plot exact numbers just yet, we can give you a taste of where to expect the most snow.
According to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center’s outlook (which is in line with our thinking too), the highest chance of shovelable/plowable snow will be near and west of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
This storm is still hundreds of miles from the West Coast of the U.S.
Once that gets over land on Wednesday, weather balloons can sample it. That data gets fed into forecast models, making them more reliable and consistent.
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In the meantime, we’re looking at seasonable temperatures for the next few days. Expect more clouds west and more sun east on Tuesday. Clouds increase on Wednesday.
A much weaker system glides south of here Wednesday night into Thursday morning, leaving us with mostly snow on the western slopes.
A few flurries/scattered snow showers could spill into parts of the New River Valley and Highlands on Thursday morning.