2009.02.22
Another cold, breezy couple of days, with some flurries
Another blast of Arctic air will be moving in today on stiff northwest winds, and there might be a few snow flurries or even briefly heavier snow showers around. Lows will likely be in the teens across much of the area by Monday morning. But, for those of you tired of the windy cold this year (is someone out there not tired of it?), give it a couple of days and a run of milder weather will move in.
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I just took the dog out and we got "snizzled" on. He loved it .... he is a golden retriever mix. In fact, it even intensified slightly to the level of a snow shower. 33 degrees. Practically zero accum, however. If radar is accurate, it will end very soon. SW Roanoke County.
Comment by Doug Griggs — February 22, 2009 @ 7:28 am
The NWS is calling for .5 inches. As little as that is, the snow lover in me will take just about anything. Do you think we'll get that much here in Roanoke?
Comment by Jay — February 22, 2009 @ 7:59 am
Had about 1-2" down here in Fancy Gap. Everything is solid white. It's very pretty. It's just enough to cover everything, but not enough to cause major problems. Did it snow anywhere else in the Viewing Area?
Comment by Zach — February 22, 2009 @ 8:17 am
It is now 8:10 AM, "snow" has ended with only powdered-sugar covering on our deck, roof, and curbside mailbox. But looking out past our back yard (we have quite a view to the NE and ENE) the houses about 3/4 of a mile away have snow-covered roofs, while the ones immed below us, 1/4 mile or so, are practically snow-free. All these homes have the same elevation. Ones across the street from us are in between, just a faint snow cover. Never saw this pattern before .... of course, I am at work by now on most days.
Comment by Doug Griggs — February 22, 2009 @ 8:18 am
Looks like another spotty snow for Southwest Virginia with some places getting a couple of inches, others getting a dusting, others next to nothing. Here in South Roanoke County, I see a few signs of light snow dusting in some wind-blown areas on leaves and grass, but you have to really look to see it.
Comment by kevinmyatt — February 22, 2009 @ 9:07 am
About a half-inch in Radford/Fairlawn.
That brings our season total at my house to about 5", tops.
Comment by Ralph — February 22, 2009 @ 9:21 am
I posted on another thread, but we had just under an inch and a half at our house in New River, which sounds like around the upper limits of snow from this one. And Kevin, the snow has definitely been extremely spotty this go around and all season. If Ralph is correct in his measurements and I've been correct in mine, I've had double the snow this winter and I'm less than a mile away from Radford and Fairlawn, with no appreciable difference in elevations, with almost 3x the snow out of this snow. Got a few additional flakes flying at the moment, but nothing that will accumulate.
Comment by Other John — February 22, 2009 @ 9:58 am
Woke up to about 1.5 inches of snow this morning. Been getting on and off heavy snow showers all day but after the early morning accumulation, it's not sticking anymore and much of it has melted off.
Comment by Indian Valley John — February 22, 2009 @ 3:56 pm
I guess the good news is that there is no logical way for the same thing to happen next winter..
Comment by Brandon R. — February 22, 2009 @ 4:19 pm
Kevin recently described the lack of snow being a continuation of the years-long lack of precipitation in general, and I completely agree. Drought tends to extend itself, because the lack of moisture in the lower levels of atmosphere of a drought-stricken area cause incoming storms to use up a lot of their energy just moisturizing the atmosphere, or in other words, dragging up dew points sufficiently to allow precip to reach the ground. And the ground is so dry that much of what does reach the ground gets swallowed up and goes deep underground to the water level, leaving the surface dry relatively soon after a rainfall. And the next storm is faced with the same hurdles to overcome, and some systems don't even get past the virga stage. Contrast this winter and last with the El Nino winter of 2003, when Roanoke received about 6 to 8 snowfalls, mainly because the ground had already been moisturized by the above normal rains of autumn 2002. Dew points were much closer to actual temps, no dry low-levels of the atmosphere to overcome, and higher water tables, keeping the ground moister, again allowing the low levels of the atmosphere to remain relatively moist, next storm comes along and with no hurdles to overcome, nealry all of the storm's energy goes into producing precip, water levels stay high, etc. etc. I am afraid it will require an El Nino year to change the pattern sufficiently to allow a southern jet to get going and bring plentiful moisture. KM reports that some scientists/climatologists believe that we may get an El Nino in 2010. I bet it will be late 2010 at the earliest, and may be late 2011.
Comment by Doug Griggs — February 23, 2009 @ 12:49 am