2008.12.23
Winter weather advisory now covers most of Southwest Virginia
The winter weather advisory has been expanded to include much of Southwest Virginia, including the Roanoke and New River valleys, as patchy freezing rain and sleet are causing slick travel here and there. This is the leading edge of a new round of warmth and moisture overrunning shallow cold air at the surface, which will be pushed out on Wednesday. But the moisture and cold air have overlapped just enough for some dreaded ice in a few areas. Roanoke is sitting at 36 degrees, safely above freezing for now, but some heavier precipitation could drag the temperature to the freezing mark, as the surface air is dry and any moisture falling through it will induce radiational cooling. Still, it looks like the worst threats of ice will be in outlying areas, particularly higher elevations.
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And one more thing, Kev...
HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS!
Comment by Brandon R. — December 23, 2008 @ 11:55 pm
Merry Christmas to you too, Brandon, and to everyone else who has been a part of Weather Journal!
Comment by kevinmyatt — December 24, 2008 @ 2:46 am
Merry Christmas Kevin, Thanks for all the weather info. I really enjoy and appreciate it. My family and I are heading out to Snowshoe this afternoon...hopefully it won't be too icey!!!
Comment by Betty H — December 24, 2008 @ 8:14 am
Kevin - I have been reading a couple of weather forums and people are saying that the overall weather pattern will change around the first of January. They're also saying that this will be the mid-atlantics first real chance of snow. What do you think about this?
Comment by Bradley — December 24, 2008 @ 12:49 pm
It looks like the NAO may be heading for a negative tilt the first week of January.
Could this be a sign of colder weather to come?
Comment by Brandon R. — December 24, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
Bradley, Brandon, y'all are beating me to the punch on this. I've been monitoring the models and discussion about this, and there are increasing signals that the North Atlantic Oscillation will move to its negative phase in early January ... which means blocking high pressure near Greenland forcing the jet stream farther south over the eastern U.S. It's a classic winter pattern and the one from which we get a majority of our really significant winter storms ... though that is never a guarantee, since the details determine a lot. If this developed in early January, that in itself would be significant, since we've almost invariably had an unseasonable warmup in early January in the last few years. I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet, but will certainly be watching it and discussing it in days ahead.
Comment by kevinmyatt — December 24, 2008 @ 3:26 pm