3 storm systems this week, but only 3 flakes on snow meter
We have somewhat similar storm systems coming through Monday, Wednesday and — possibly — about Saturday. The first two are vey likely tracking to our northwest, without sufficient blocking to hold in cold air in Southwest Virginia, so they will be mostly rain — and maybe a lot of it, adding them together. Monday’s storm system is likely to leave a quarter to a half inch on much of our region, with some spots maybe topping half an inch, as shown on the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center rainfall map through Monday evening. Because Gulf moisture will be overrunning cold air at the surface, some sleet will probably fall in the early stages of the rain on Monday morning — that may be the pecking you hear outside your window. I wouldn’t even rule out a few wet snowflakes, especially north of Roanoke — NAM model tonight actually pulls colder air in close to us for a little while on Monday. But it won’t last long. Some pockets may also be cold enough for freezing rain for a while — a few counties to the northwest, including Bath and Alleghany in Virginia, are under a winter weather advisory for this possibility. A much stronger storm system will track west of us on Wednesday, with some rain possibly reaching our area late Christmas after would should be a fairly nice Christmas Day. Rainfall estimates for our region still exceed 1 inch on Wednesday, as the track and possibly a second low forming near us will throw lots of moisture against our mountains on southeast winds. The only winter caveats on this storm: (1) again, maybe some sleet at the outset; (2) some models do want to change the backside of the rain over to snow for a bit late Wednesday — I’m very skeptical of this, on a historical basis, east of I-77; (3) upslope snow showers again on what could be strong and gusty northwest winds behind the storm, similar to Friday’s. The Saturday system is still very much of an enigma, on multiple levels, so I won’t dig into it much yet. As you can see in the weekly Snow Meter below, as copied from today’s Roanoke Times, I kinda blew it off for now — maybe to my eventual detriment.
Snow meter, 12/24-12/30
Scale of 0 to 10 snowflakes for chances of 1-inch of snow during next week (Monday-Sunday), with zero meaning no chance and 10 meaning certainty.
Roanoke (3 snowflakes out of 10) ***
Blacskburg (3 snowflakes out of 10) ***
Outlook: I thought this was going to be a hard week to pick, with a storm system moving toward us that would be a razor-thin call between rain, ice and snow on the day after Christmas. But now, there is only the tiniest chance that enough snow and sleet could fall at the outset of Wednesday’s rain to bust my 1-inch marker on the snow meter. It’s doubtful anything more than a few sleet pellets will fall, as a strong low-pressure system tracks to our west, with nothing to the north really holding in the cold air. It will sweep in milder air and thick moisture for a much-needed rain – hopefully it can start refilling Smith Mountain Lake and other depleted reservoirs. Beyond that, there will be a similar chance of snow showers to what we just had, forming with northwest winds blowing over the Appalachians, late this week behind the low and a cold front. There might be another fairly weak system next weekend, but it’s too far out and too iffy to put much stock in. I do think it’s finally going to get harder for me after this week.
Looking back: This past week worked out just about like I thought, with Friday-Saturday snow showers and flurries, but trace amounts at Roanoke and Blacksburg. Score the week a victory for below-five snowflake picks (four at Blacksburg, two at Roanoke) and not getting an inch of snow.
Current records: 3-0 for Roanoke, 3-0 for Blacksburg.
December 24, 2012 - 12:24 AM
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Still time to run out and get your furry buddies a treat. Headin to Wally World rite now to get 5 packs of cat friskies and 10 packs of milkbones. And not a one even belongs to me.
The sound of rain running in the gutters was a pleasant sound this morning. Currently 38 and rain up here on Doppler Ridge. It must be foggy/cloudy out there because I cannot see the car lights on 221 nor the new cell tower lights.
Randy and all others who lost pets this year: we lost our big dog last summer as well and it does make for a quiet holiday. May we all be granted peace and joy with the many good memories they left us with. Doug: we are thinking of you and your family in your struggles with “Blondie Boy.”
Mr. Griggs sorry about BlondieBoy, hopefully he will get better soon. It raining this morning and overall dreary. Good day to spend with family and friends
Good luck with your snow meter picks, Kevin. And to everyone, a Merry Christmas!
Mother Nature is bestowing a nice Christmas Eve present to the folks in Southside-Martinsville-Danville …. heavy rain. Raining here, too! YAY!! It certainly looks like the faucet is turned back on.
And thanks very much, Doppler Carol, for commenting on the PNA news.
1 Snowflake should be plenty to cover all bets for the next 10 days just in case.
If it’s precipitating and fairly cold but no obvious solid snow chances, or on weeks with upslope snow showers on NW winds, I will generally go 2 or 3 flakes on the snow meter. If there is one somewhat vague system near the end of the week, I would probably go at lest 2. I save zero and 1 for weeks that are looking like above normal temps or almost totally dry end to end.
Sorry to hear about your ailing dog, Doug. I have a dog almost as old, will be 14 in May. She’s living with my mother now and her dog after years of hiking with me. Pretty bad arthritis in her joints, so the walks are much shorter these days, but we do take some.
Doug
Am so sorry your dear boy is ill. They enrich our lives so much and many of us love them as much as a child. We have two 14 year old dear girls. Thankful for every day they are here.
Some light sleet here in Ruckersville. Not exactly a White Christmas but as bad as the Winter has been so far, I’ll take it.
APOLOGY FOR THE NON WEATHER COMMENT FOLLOWING:
Thanks everyone for the kind comments about our pride and joy. Blondie got sick again this morning, and is now refusing to even eat his pill pockets which contain his meds. He normally wolfs them down because he loves the taste of the (either) chicken or beef pockets. We just made another appointment with our vet for an hour from now. Luckily I got today off from work …. was not “mandatoried” to work my day off before a holiday.
Luckily (in a way) we have been through this before with our first dog, but that doesn’t make it any easier this time around.
Meanwhile, we are getting a VERY nice rain! Had a 1/4 inch in the old gauge at 9:15, and more has fallen. Tiny rivulet in our curb. Steady temp about 41-42. Starting to get just a bit foggy now.
Advice for any of you dog lovers who are “on” your first dog, and he or she is still young. CHERISH these days!! Take as many pictures and/or videos as you can. I wish we had taken more videos of the crazy Blonde Man chasing his crazy letter carrier father into the back yard when he was young and a big clown. He used to eek with joy and his ears would flap up and down. Very funny.
My folks report heavy snow on 81 in Harrisonburg, on their way to our house in Blacksburg.
It snowing here!
Here’s hoping some of that snow works into Greene County today for a little Christmas Eve present for Jared.
Sorry for your best friend troubles,Doug. As a veterinarian for 24+ years ( and growing up with my dad as a vet for over47 years),I know tha pain our pets and owners face at times. I always feel like I am treating 2 patients at the same time,and many times the owner is the hardest one to treat!! Some arthritis meds can upset the stomach,so make sure he is on some Pepcid or other antiacid as I am sure your vet has prescribed. I’m working today,but off this Xmas eve and day. Merry Christmas and Peace to us all….
Slight risk of severe weather into some of Southside Virginia on Wednesday.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day3otlk.html
For Christmas Day — moderate risk of severe weather and possible tornado outbreak in Louisiana-Mississippi area.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html
Glad to hear that there is snow in Ruckersville! Enjoying the rain here – my automated rain gauge is on the fritz so it is not recording how much rain we are receiving. When the rain stops I will have to go out and replace the batteries and see if that works. At least there is the PWS down from the Doppler so I can check that one.
Doug – try cream cheese or peanut butter for administering Blondie’s meds.
Believe it or not the mulch beds are starting to turn white. I’m sure it will turn to rain later but hope Mr. French is still in the county to see it. If not someone better notify the Giles County Burger King.
Wow, snow here in western Greene county, but no sticking! Guess that is our snow for the winter time for the warm up. DT trying to talk up a snowstorm on the 30th, but all he does is talk with no results! LOL (for example the 26th) Hard to have a snow when highs are supposed to be in the 40s, where is the cold?
The tricky thing about the third system this week — the one on the 30th — is that what happens with the mid-week system will affect it.
12Z GFS is taking the midweek storm — the big soaker for us — and making it a “50-50″ low near Newfoundland. This would force the next low farther south and east and allow colder in to settle in. BUT .. of course … that may not be what happens.
I used golf as an analogy the other day, but this is more like billiards. It’s not just about what this shot does, it’s how it sets up the board for the next shot.
Just for a little model humor … I’m not sure I could handle the snow-lover meltdown if this dry slot developed with the Dec. 30 storm.
http://tinyurl.com/bmmek46
http://tinyurl.com/cl2g4dv
http://tinyurl.com/bvjhwwl
Jared: You will find that a LARGE number of snow events in Virginia happen during periods when highs are mostly in the 40s. 40s highs on non-precipitation days often translate to near- or below-freezing days with the evaporational cooling/dynamic cooling of storm systems. More important than exactly what highs are the days before and after is where each storm system tracks, because that is what determines what the temperatures are like when it precipitates.
Enjoy your wet snowflakes today!
Kevin, that is too funny. How ironic would it be for the models to accurately predict such a dry slot this far out?
In all fairness — the couple of frames before those show some light snow on SW Viginia … but then comes the dry slot.
Jared-I agree 100% about your DT comment. I used to follow DT quite a bit, but the truth of the matter is he is way more HYPE than substance. His talk of big snows, almost never pan out for us in VA. And, now since his great post-Christmas snow has gone bust, he is clinging to the 30th. But, don’t forget about January 2nd. I really see no reason to believe there will be any widespread significant snow in VA between now and at least January 5th. Hope I am wrong of course. By the way NWS Sterling has issued a WWA for folks west of the Blue Ridge for “white rain”. Why would they issue a WWA when temps are above freezing EVERYWHERE and only rising? It goes right along with their non-sensical Blizzard Warnings back during Sandy.
A picture from John from Ruckersville of huge snowflakes there, and some on his deck.
http://blogs.roanoke.com/weatherjournal/files/2012/12/ruckersvillesnow.jpg
BTW — My 11:22 a.m., No. 23 comment in response to Jared was neither meant to defend or criticize Dave Tolleris, it was just talking generally about patterns of 40s highs and snow events, historically. I’ll leave opinions of him and other individual forecasters to others.
I think there is a tendency for NWS office to somewhat over-warn during known high travel periods, B’Burg Mike, just to be safe. I remember Roanoke drawing a winter weather advisory for slightly less than criteria snow one time in December a few years ago, with a note about it being a busy Saturday for Christmas shopping in the forecast discussion. But of course I agree with you about those blizzard warnings in October.
If that happens, I hope all meteorologist gets ear plugs and ear muffs for x-mas.
The pattern has changed alright…wet wet wet and seasonably chilly! None of those snow predictions by DT and others have panned out for us here in Roanoke and vicinity for Christmas Eve, post-Christmas and I don’t think there will be no New Years Storm either. Jared, at least you’re gettint wet snowflakes and I think you’re correct Jared, from what you’ve said before…it’s going to be a rainier version of last winter. I’m not worrying about it anymore, what it does it does!!!
We had freezing rain this morning in Covington. Almost busted my butt on the driveway. Trucks were salting the roads.
Hahaha…is RAINIER even a word? Used it in my last comment!
I didn’t follow all of DT’s predictions, but elsewhere I saw ZERO actual forecasts for significant snow in Roanoke for around Christmas. Possibilities were discussed, here and elsewhere, but that is far from saying “yes, this is likely to happen.” I’m talking about actual forecasts, not just individual model runs showing something.
I will toot my horn for a second and say the midweek low is doing pretty much what I said it would a week ago, and that’s go west of the Apps and transfer energy to the coast at our latitude or farther north. Not that that was original forecasting — many others projected the same thing, in much greater meteorological detail. The question was whether or not there would be cold air wedging or damming sufficient for frozen precipitation with that track, and the answer is very likely to be NO at this point. Also a question about whether that would be the track or farther west or east, but it appears to be pretty much settling on that eastern Ohio Valley-skip to coast track.
If you want to give up on snow because it hasn’t by Christmas that’s fine. Weather history says otherwise.
Jared and Blacksburg Mike, buckle your seat belts, because ….. I AGREE with you two about DT’s forecasting ability once he gets within a week of an event. Sometimes he is very right, such as with Sandy (he gets an A+++ from me for that monster, because I think KM noted that he was one of the very first people to identify that big threat), but often he over-estimates snowfall amounts by quite a bit, especially within 5 days. I greatly admire his knowledge and ability to identify trends for the long term with polar vortex and QBO and PNA stuff.
Note: I wish DT would update his website more often (haven’t looked in last 3 days or so, but when I did late last week the most recent article was 12-12-12). Like wd, I don’t do Facebook, nor “faceprint” as I guess wd was referring to it. :>)
Pretty much all TV is hype…
Many TV weathermen are hype squared.
I think though sleet and or freezing rain
may get some special consideration..
Dallas is notorious for very fine mists overnight
in Jan/Feb..and temps in the 20-s.
These roads and many many bridges can come to
a standstill in minutes.
Forgot to mention that we have a reversal of normal daytime temps right now, because of the approach of warmer air from the SW. At noon, Tazewell was 43, Blacksburg 43, ROA 39, and Lexington close to freezing. Definitely “sounds like” a warm front, right, KM?
Oops, Tazewell was 45, not 43.
Yes Scott..it is..
Theres light drizzle..drizzle…light rain..moderate rain
heavy rain….
and a very rainy snowy place.
http://brianabbott.net/media/photos/travels/1994/POSTCARD.jpg
Or as they might say in Wiffle..
Runhere..
I AM JOKING.
0.32″ here at 12:30 PM. Probably more rain than has hit the ground in the last month total.
I will throw this out for what it’s worth: In my opinion, Dec. 30 is the best shot at widespread snow we’ve had since Feb. 19. Of course, that’s not saying a ton — all we’ve had since Feb. 19 with even a plausible shot at widespread snow was an early March clipper, Sandy, and these two storm systems before and after Christmas. This does not mean I am saying it WILL snow or even LIKELY snow at this point, but there are some intriguing things about how that system is setting up.
I’d give it 1 in 3 of being a 1+ snow for Roanoke/Blacksburg at this point. I guess my 3 in 10 snowflake pick is pretty much on track, for now. But somehow I had a feeling even when I put that out that the late week storm this week would burn me.
Cobwebs in the rain gauge so cleaned them out and it is working now. Says we have had “0.22″ since the clean out. Temps are down to 36 now and another band of heavy rain coming through.
Sometimes when I “invoke Khan,” the results are not immediate, they come a few days later. But it sure is working now :>) :>) :>). I am up to 0.6 inches!!! Yippee.
wd, I find it strange, odd, whatever, that for the 2nd straight rainfall, I am recording more than you, even though you are higher than me. I have an old fashioned rain gauge that gets no over-measurement from bouncing raindrops, so I wonder if your gauge might somehow be under-measuring? I need to check the IFLOWS to see if Sugar Loaf Mntn site is recording more than Witt’s Orchard (Bent Mountain).
Kevin…
agree about December 30 event.
12Z Euro confirms what you say above. I’m not going to say anything at this point as I jinxed the 26-27 storm for everyone.
The snow has switched over to just a cold rain now. It was great while it lasted. At least we are getting some precip
What’s the reason for that dry slot on the models for the 30th? I didn’t think that usually happened with a coastal storm? Is that the Euro or GFS?
Too far out on the back deck to see, but at least .75 inch in the gauge here in Eastern Franklin County. Was at Snowshoe yesterday… first time I’ve ever removed my hat, gloves, and the inside layer of my jacket. Bluebird day and 35ish degrees.
Joe: You beat me to the Mt. Rainier thing. Crossed my mind though.
I dont get many Kevin..One can get snowblinded in here..!!
Oh my lord! DT is woofing about the euro 12z showing a big snowstorm for the 30th! LOL believe it when I see it! He sure screwed up the 26th storm. As far as snow predictions, I believe he posts amounts for the mountain ranges and not in areas where people live. Example here in Greene he will say 6 inches, meanwhile where the people live there wont be snow while on flat top or big meadows there probably would be 6 inches.
Back to the 26th event, DT had the storm originally in eastern north Carolina and now look where its going to be! He bashes other METS who don’t agree with him like Henry M. I am beginning to think all these guys are full of shit and hype storms to much! I like the way Kevin does it, just lays out scenarios so not to get people excited.
Rockbridge and Bath counties, plus Greenbrier County WVa, now have a winter storm watch from late Christmas to late Wednesday, primarily for ice accumulation.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/rnk/
Well, I was premature in saying that there was a warm front moving our way. Maybe there was one, but if so, it sure never made it here. Temp has fallen to 37*. I forgot to check the wind direction early today. I bet that it is either NE or close to that, or calm. The golf announcer whispers …. “He is considering a 9-iron …. no, he is going with a WEDGE!!!”
BLONDIE DOG UPDATE (for those interested): the vet has him for two more nights. His kidney enzymes are elevated again (not good), although not as bad as last Tuesday. It sure will be a quiet, sad Christmas here without him, even if he would be practically comatose. Years ago I used to call him “Bag of Bones” in a kidding fashion …. very unfortunately, that is now the situation exactly. If the vet can somehow get him to resume eating quite a bit, I hope that he could undergo a bit of a comeback. But we are braced for the worse. Again, thanks to all of you who expressed your caring sentiments.
Jared, I have seen HM get a lot of criticism over the years because he will forecast what he thinks, not what everyone else agrees with. I may be biased somehow, but I think he usually does pretty good. I don’t think he ever felt this 26th system was going to be much but rain in the mid-atlantic. He has missed the mark a few times too, but I doubt it is anymore than any other met trying to make long-range calls.
Hey, Jared, congrats on at least seeing some white stuff briefly today, and in Greene County no less. Time for a little Jared rant, too. That’s OK, JF. Have a Merry Christmas. And for gosh sakes BE CAREFUL driving to Giles on Wednesday!! Even if we are careful and avoid skids by minimizing use of the brakes, we all have to try to watch out for the other driver.
With several of us (I did one too) having ranted recently, perhaps I can try to inject a little humor about that. Imagine the tune, please ….. “Tis the season to be ranty …” NOTE!! “Ranty,” not “Randy.” Although that may happen, too ……
All I will add to the meteorological hype discussion is that, in the modern world of instant communication, there is pressure to be the first to declare something that will happen. Similar to the pressure news organizations feel to be first with breaking news, and sometimes, terrible mistakes are made. Not only do private forecasters, in particular, need to take some chances on being the first to say something WILL happen, they also face a public who prefers black-and-white, sound-bite-sized yes and no answers rather than the endless intricacies and complexities and probabilities that weather inevitably entails. With weather, the problem with forecasting several days out is just that inevitably there is only partial information.
This is why you see the National Weather Service approach weather events far more conservatively. If the next 2 runs of the GFS and Euro both unambiguously showed a massive snowstorm socking us on Saturday, you probably wouldn’t get more than “chance of snow” or maybe even “chance of rain or snow” out of the NWS forecasts. They slowly move into and out of forecasts so that they’re not swinging back and forth with new model runs, and also so that they’re not on record declaring something as happening that is 5 days out and really is one of many scenarios. There are some times this approach can be lacking and gets criticized, but it generally works for them.
Nate Silver of the New York Times was widely acclaimed for his ability to predict the recent elections. But what he really did wasn’t to declare candidate A or B would win a given race, he employed a probability scheme not terribly unlike what the National Weather Service does, adjusting it up or down with new data. He did not say “Obama will win the presidency,” he said “Obama has a 91 percent chance of winning the presidency.” The probability dipped to 60 percent after polls following the first debate and slowly rose afterward. That’s what the weather service does — slowly increases or decreases probabilities as new data becomes available, and time until the event decreases.
I feel no pressure, or minimal at worst. Frankly it doesn’t matter if my best guess is right or wrong with an event, as long as we’ve laid out the possibilities and discussed the ins and outs of each. Some people don’t like this approach — they’ve asked me to provide short, direct “will it snow or not” answers many days away. Others like the ongoing discussion of possibilities. It’s what we do here.
And Jared, I and probably everyone else here agree with you 100% about your sentence above “I like the way Kevin does it, just lays out scenarios so not to get people excited.” This son of a gun Myatt has quite a fan club …. very deservedly so!!
http://blueridgeweather.blogspot.com/
Note – Pink area — the wording is a little confusing – - Expect more of a brief mix at onset of precipitation. Not 1-2 hours of mix. Props to Kevin for the wording help.
Fairly confident in this map
38 F and we have had “0.33″ inches of rain.
Non-weather comment: Granddaughter (6yrs.) just called and had me check on the NORAD Santa tracker(there is a website) to see where he was. She wants to know if it is time to go to bed now. She said she left a note for Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves. She wants to me to leave some cookies for them and then some carrots for the reindeer. I told her I would. Merry Christmas!
The weather channel was showing all rain not to long ago but now is showing a wintry mix on Wednesday has anything changed Kevin?
Euro model was a little colder on Wed AM a while ago. Would not be surprised if there were some sleet at the outset for Roanoke/NRV southward. Should have no trouble rising above freezing however it starts.
Would obviously prefer snow but nice to get .54 inches of rain today, .42 in Jordantown. Temperature sits at 36.5. At my second Christmas Eve stop out of four. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday…a Merry Christmas and lotsa snow soon for us snow lovers.
Thanks for a year’s worth of insightful weather info, and a blog that’s always a pleasure to read, Kevin. And thanks to your lovely family for sharing you with all of us. Merry Christmas!
Grandma Carol: I am disppointed that the visibility is so horrible tonight (I have pea soup fog here). I was hoping to have great visibility, enough to see the NORAD building on Apple Orchard Mountain lit up in red and green as it helps in tracking ol’ Santa Claus. Oh well, we just have to accept some things on faith.
Not sure if this was noted anywhere, but HPC seems to think we could possibly see some ice.
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/day2_pice_gt_25.gif
Merry Christmas to you Kevin, your wife and son and for all the insightful and wonderful work you do keeping this weather blog afloat. It has sort of become my own little “dysfunctional family” so to speak since mom passed away several years ago and always enjoy seeing comments from many of you. Merry Christmas to you Griggsy, Jared French from Greene Valley, Nick from Ellet Valley, Nurse Snow, Quagmire, Leo Lady, Doppler Carol, Other John, TWLS girls, Sam Oakey and all of you, so sorry if I left anyone out I apologize. Snow has always been of special sentiment to me for many reasons, so if I get antsy about it on occasion, I apologize. It has a spiritual meaning to me and may explain one day! God bless this blog!
The weather channel says about one inch of snow on Wednesday are they crazy or what?
Kevin, you still think we will be OK leaving Wednesday morning and driving down 81 to Giles?
Rain then snow Dallas…
250023¶
TAF/ ¶
TAF KDFW 250022Z 2500/2600 03005KT P6SM BKN200¶
FM250900 06007KT 5SM -SHRA BKN040 OVC070¶
TEMPO 2510/2514 3SM TSRA BKN015 OVC030¶
FM251400 02010KT 3SM -SHRA BR OVC008¶
FM251700 34012G22KT 3SM -SHRA BR OVC010¶
FM251900 33020G32KT 4SM -SHRA BR OVC012¶
TEMPO 2520/2521 3SM -RASN BR OVC010¶
FM252100 32025G35KT 3SM -SN BR OVC012¶
TEMPO 2521/2523 1 1/2SM -SHSN BLSN BR BKN006 OVC012¶
Basically rain and some thunder till around noon..
winds shift and gusty around noon from the NW *(GUST 32),,
Rain mixing with snow and blowing snow in the afternoon..
visibilities down to 1 1/2 mi… that is in-house metro…not NWS…
We-ll see. Bodes well for white SWVA in a few days.
Harrisonburg has winter storm watches… What do you think kevin? Just mainly mountains? Im traveling back home from abingdon wed morning.
Had a fun day driving in the snow in Loundoun County.Started at noon and snowed till i got home at 5:00.Picked up close to 1 inch of snow. Ground,Cars, Parking lot still covered and its sitting on 33 now.At least we had snow for Christmas Eve.Have a great Christmas all.
I took a look at today’s polar view of the Polar Vortex map. The two biggest areas are still on the other side of the North Pole.
I hope Kevin and everyone who comments and/or contributes here has a very safe and very Merry Christmas!
Visiting McKinney,TX for XMas. Under a Winter Weather Advisory for 1-3 inches of snow. I’ll take it! But.. I was looking at the NAM Clown Map.. for the NRV.. and it showed snow for most places that were expected to get rain. What’s with that?
Here it is:(GFS) http://wxcaster.com/gis-gfs-snow-overlays.php3?STATIONID=FCX
Generally, looks like there could be spotty ice south of I-64 and perhaps more widespread to the north. The winter storm watches to the north are primarily about ice — some snow/sleet to start. I don’t give specific travel advice, but if you drive on Wednesday morning, be alert to the possibility of ice wherever you go. Probably won’t be long lasting toward Roanoke/New River valleys, but could be some ice on bridges/overpasses and shaded roads here and there.
Temps have been a bit warmer out here in far SW today. Had .60 of rain and now under a dense fog advisory. Hope all are safe as they travel and celebrate with family friends. We had 27 for dinner tonight and expecting 14 tomorrow night. Then sleep will come along with more rain and possibly some snow. Doug, sorry to hear your dog is under the weather. We have nursed our share of animals.
Thanks, MH, and God bless you and yours. Sounds like you had enough for a football game tonight and for a basketball or ice hockey game tomorrow night. Are some of your guests sleeping in a manger right now?