One late wave of rain coming -- but will it freeze?Posted Feb22, 2008 at 07:34 AMIt is now a race between the last piece of this very broken storm system, currently moving across Tennessee and Kentucky (click here for national and regional radar views), and whether surface temperatures can warm above freezing before it gets here. We will probably see some rain as that last spoke in the wheel moves through later this morning or early in the afternoon. Temperatures are well above freezing in the atmosphere above the surface level, so anything reaching the surface will almost certainly be liquid. It's just a matter of whether temperatures at ground level will be cold enough to allow any ice to build once that precipitation arrives later today. The National Weather Service in Blacksburg is hanging on to a winter weather advisory until noon just in case the last wave slaps us with a little ice. |
About this blog
Kevin Myatt works on the copy desk for The Roanoke Times and is its principal weather geek, writing a weekly weather column and advising the newsroom on weather topics. He helps guide students on a storm chasing trip to the central U.S. each May and was an editor for "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States." .....Advertisement.....
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Comments
[February 22, 2008 8:13 AM]
AngelaI can't help but think this could well have been our last chance for any sort of real winter weather this year. Ha..it's odd how personal the weather can feel at times. I'm actually feeling anger about the lack of snow this winter.
I'm sure it'll pass....just a couple of good, deep snows would have been lovely.
[February 22, 2008 12:01 PM]
Other JohnIt's raining a bit here in the NRV and not freezing to anything as far as I can see. Temps look to be 32 and above everywhere I've been this morning, so I think we escaped. BUt I will agree with Angela, this has been a frustrating winter. I think we might have a chance or 2 to get decent winter weather before the odds fall off, but the overall pattern has kept the snows west of here with the jet tracking through west virginia and not up the coast. It's weird when southside and eastern Virginia have more snow in a winter than here, but it's looking that way for this year.
[February 22, 2008 6:21 PM]
Kevin MyattIf you like snow, I think we're down to two possibilities: (1) a major East Coast low like we haven't seen in many years or (2) that freak plop of wet snow, with the big conglomerate flakes at 32-33 degrees, we sometimes get with a meandering upper level low or a cold front moving into a rain shield. Neither La Nina nor the ongoing North Atlantic pattern seems favorable for the East Coast low, as all the big ones end up going to the Great Lakes (quite possibly including another strong low later this week). So unless we get that freak wet snow, we may in fact be done.
[February 22, 2008 7:46 PM]
Other JohnThose were my general thoughts too. This might conclude another highly dissapointing winter here. I think I've only had 2 years since I moved here where the snowfall has actually met or exceeded the long-term averages in the NRV. If it's not going to snow, lets bring on spring all across the country so we don't get any more of those freakish winter tornado outbreaks.