2009.10.17
A touch of winter at the high elevations
My storm chasing friend Dave Carroll from Blacksburg ventured up to Salt Pond Mountain today (the one Mountain Lake is on). He saw a little light snow blowing around and shot some photos of a wintry mountaintop with an autumn background. My favorite, small at the left and a larger version linked here, showns rime ice on tree branches above 4,100 feet at Bald Knob. Riming is caused by winds blowing water droplets in clouds against surfaces that are below freezing. He also shot a picture of a wee bit of snow accumulation on some of the many ferns found on the mountain. Just a hint of winter today at the area's highest elevations.
Some more snow showers are possible overnight at elevations generally above 3,000 feet (possibly creeping lower into the New River Valley after midnight) as another disturbance swings through. The bigger issue will be the potential for a growing season-ending freeze tonight and again Sunday night over most of Southwest Virginia west and north of Roanoke. Freeze warnings and watches have been issued.
A late week snow set records for earliest on record in some states to our northeast.
This taste of winter won't last long, as gradually warming temperatures are expected through the coming week.
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30 degrees on my back porch thermometer in Woodlawn, Carroll County. Wind is down at the moment. Of course on the Weather Channel they have us at 37 degrees, but they are always a little higher than my outside porch!
Comment by Doug Smith — October 18, 2009 @ 7:50 am
Wy wife and I encountered moderate snowfall in the mountains of MD and WV on I-68 while returning from Morgantown, WV last night. We also ran into some moderate-heavy snow where Rt 33 crosses the mountain at the Skyline Drive. Surface temps were still too warm for any accumulations but it was great to see the flakes flying this early in the year. It did prompt VDOT to send a couple trucks rigged with their full winter gear (snowplow and spreader) up the mountain from the Stanardsville area. I'd bet that was the earliest VDOT dispatched snowplows in a long time.
Comment by John from Charlottesville — October 18, 2009 @ 10:21 am
WOW! I was just at Mountain Lake today (October 18th) at 3pm. It was a Winter wonderland for it being only Mid October. They had about a tenth of inch on the ground and the trees were covered with white gold! Ah, what a site!
Comment by Jusin — October 18, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
I'm finding it hard to believe that it's going to be back up in the 70's this week!
Comment by Angela — October 18, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
So much for the 2009 growing season. That ended this morning in Wytheville with a 26. My pepper plants in the garden look like melting goo.
Comment by Rick — October 19, 2009 @ 9:09 am
Hey there Kevin,
I was wondering:
Do you think we'll be getting any more warm spurts after this one? I can't imagine they'd be very long lasting if we do...
Comment by Angela — October 20, 2009 @ 10:49 pm
We're usuallly good for some days in the 70s in November. If the progressive pattern keeps up, with cold fronts passing every 5 days or so, we'll go warm-cool-warm-cool for quite a while.
Comment by Kevin Myatt — October 21, 2009 @ 10:40 am
Hello Kevin! This is the first time I have written you and have thoroughly enjoyed your columns for the past several years! I am a big winter weather fanatic and have dabbled with meteorology by keeping winter weather records since 1991. I am wondering if all the rain and highs in the 40s last week would have been just one month later, pre-Thanksgiving, that probably would have been a record early snowfall for November wouldn't it? Just about all winter prognostications I have read have been the cliched cold and snowy for our area that NEVER goes into fruition. Do you think these "weather critics" are just riding the same bandwagon because of the early cold this year or is there some validity to it? Of course the NAO and el nino play a key factor I assume. Just wondering and keep up the great weather journals.
Comment by Scott Saunders — October 21, 2009 @ 11:22 am
Scott: I would say if that cold rainy spell had been TWO months later it would have almost certainly been an ice/snow situation. One month later, in November, it could have been a borderline cold rain/ice/wet snow situation. Since we had warm, moist air overriding cold air at the surface, the ice/sleet potential would have been pretty high in a later season situation. As for the forecasts, it is interesting how so many are parallel, even the official government forecast is similar in placing cold air and moisture though not as extreme. If El Nino goes extreme rather than the projected moderate, or the North Atlantic Oscillation doesn't replicate the pattern it has most of the summer, it could easily go much warmer than these forecasts.
Comment by Kevin Myatt — October 21, 2009 @ 3:45 pm