2008.11.18
A little bit of snow for your Tuesday morning
Many of you may be dusting some snow off your cars this morning. Even the Roanoke Valley saw a few bands of brief heavy snow move through in the early morning hours, collecting on grass and car tops in some places (it was a near-whiteout for a few minutes about 2:40 a.m. at my residence in Roanoke County just south of the city). In the New River Valley, some locations got around an inch, with more in the higher elevations and on west-facing slopes. Meanwhile, higher elevations of eastern West Virginia are headed toward a foot -- Quinwood in western Greenbrier County had 5 inches before midnight. Snow showers and flurries may occur off and on through the morning in the Roanoke and New River valleys, and may well continue into tonight farther west. Be careful for slick spots, especially west of Roanoke.
Drop a comment below and let me know what it looks like near you.
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In Salem up behind Roanoke College the snow is not visible on the grass, only a dusting on the plant beds.
Comment by Jim D — November 18, 2008 @ 6:32 am
Kevin, we have almost 3 inches near Fairlawn this morning. We're still getting a decent snow coming down too and the radar shows a decent band that will stay over us for a little while longer. Needless to say, I was not expecting quite this much, but I'm thinking the coverage is fairly spotty by area because of the banding and that schools are only slated to be an hour late this morning. in Pulaski County, but Montgomery is still on time from what I see.
Comment by Other John — November 18, 2008 @ 7:00 am
I checked the NWS site in Blacksburg, and they reported having 1.0 inches through midnight, and there were some heavier bands that went through there after then, so perhaps the 1"+ coverage in the NRV is a bit more widespread than I thought.
Comment by Other John — November 18, 2008 @ 7:04 am
Hey Kevin, I'm in the last neighborhood in the west end of Salem. The road on the west side of our neighborhood is the Salem/Roanoke County border. I awoke at seven to find a "dusting" of snow out! It's on the ground, houses, cars, etc. Doesn't appear to have stuck to the road, and it's a bit breezy out so there is no snow on the trees.
Comment by Dennis — November 18, 2008 @ 7:22 am
Perfect November snow, Kev.
Just enough to make things white and not cause any travel problems.
And, most importantly, it wasn't even close to an inch. I'm still in this game.
Comment by Brandon R. — November 18, 2008 @ 9:07 am
We received about half an inch in north Roanoke County, near Northside HS.
Comment by P. Kelley — November 18, 2008 @ 9:18 am
In terms of the snow contest, about 97 percent of the approximately 200 entries dodged a bullet on this one ... if the snow had continued falling even for an hour like it was for 5-10 minutes between 2 and 3 a.m. at various places in the Roanoke Valley, we would have easily got an inch, and almost everybody except those handful with November guesses would have been way off on the first 1-inch snowfall part before the season total part could kick in ... but this was NOT an inch at Roanoke, though it is for most places west of town ...
When part of the Roanoke Valley turns a little white in an upslope event, you know that it's an impressive one ...
Comment by kevinmyatt — November 18, 2008 @ 9:23 am
I love that picture of the snow on the front page of roanoke.com, was hoping to find a larger pic of it on the site (as it would make a good desktop background) but no luck! Hope someone there can add it to the winter weather photos!
Comment by scott — November 18, 2008 @ 9:57 am
Hi, Kevin;
We're still getting flurries/light snow in Floyd Co. @ 10:45, but radar shows things starting to wind down. We don't even have a 1/2" on the ground, most has blown away or melted, but it is pretty nonetheless!
Comment by Julie — November 18, 2008 @ 10:48 am
The road was pretty slick out my way but I have AWD and new tires. It is still coming down at a good pace here in Blacksburg
Comment by Henry — November 18, 2008 @ 10:54 am
I was surprised to see in the snow total reports that everywhere west of the Blue Ridge pretty much had an inch or more. Everywhere from Pulaski County to Blacksburg that I saw had a solid coating of snow with snow-covered side roads. It made for a tricky start to the commute, but sure was beautiful to see. Hopefully, it's a sign of things to come.
Comment by Other John — November 18, 2008 @ 11:02 am
I'm in Greenville, NC where it NEVER snows... and low and behold a few minutes ago we had to run out of our building for a fire drill and it snowed for 5 minutes!! REAL snow!!! wow!! I haven't seen snow in 2 years!! IT must have come down from Roanoke!!
Comment by carrie — November 18, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
Sorry for the delay in approving comments today. I have been on location in Quinwood, West Virginia, where as of 3:30 p.m. there is 14 inches of snow. I will have some photos up, and a list of snowfall reports from around the area, in a little bit.
Comment by kevinmyatt — November 18, 2008 @ 4:32 pm
In case you're wondering ... this is officially Ronaoke's first measurable snowfall of the season, with 0.4 inch ... but it doesn't meet the 1-inch criterion for the snowfall guessing contest ...
Comment by kevinmyatt — November 18, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
It's doing it again, Kev.
Comment by Brandon R. — November 18, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
The sun has actually helped develop some convective snow bands this afternoon ... it appears on radar that one of those is moving over much of the Roanoke area right now ...
Comment by kevinmyatt — November 18, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Hey Kevin,
I think it would be very interesting if you could list the snowiest county in Virginia and West Virginia. I've heard Highland County, VA wins for most snow but can not find any records on how much snow Highland county gets?
Thank You
Austin
Comment by Austin — November 18, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
You may be correct, Austin, but I would bet on either Snowshoe Mountain, WV (in northern Pocahontas County) or the other WV mountaintop that is in the same part of the state that is actually a few feet higher than Snowshoe. Or Quinwood!!
Comment by Doug Griggs — November 19, 2008 @ 8:21 pm
Snowshoe's Website says that they have gotten 30 inches of natural snow since last Saturday. If they weren't measuring the drifts to make it sound better then they beat Quinwood!
Comment by ross — November 19, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
Ross, there is no doubt Snowshoe got more snow, and usually gets more snow, than Quinwood ... but Snowshoe (Pocahontas County) is not in National Weather Service-Blacksburg's forecast area, but in Charleston WVa's ... so the distinction of snowiest place in Blacksburg's forecast area remains with Quinwood
Comment by kevinmyatt — November 19, 2008 @ 9:31 pm