Upslope snow event
Posted Nov18, 2006 at 07:20 PM
This is looking more and more like a typical upslope snow event, and not a very serious one at that. It appears the bulk of the snow that will fall Sunday night and Monday will occur in those typical western upslope regions as northwest winds blow up the mountainsides and the lift squeezes out the very limited moisture. This map from the
Hydrometeorological Prediction Center targets a sliver from near Bluefield, W.Va., south through the Virginia Coalfields and then south through the Smoky Mountains along the North Carolina-Tennessee border for a slight chance, 10-40 percent, of 4 inches or more of snow. More likely, some areas of eastern West Virginia, far western Virginia along the border and the far southwest part of the state will see 1-3 inches, with flurries in the New River Valley and maybe a few flakes or sprinkles here in the Roanoke Valley.
A much larger storm winds up off the coast by Monday night into Tuesday. This HPC map shows a bullseye of heavy precipitation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina ... rain, not snow. If it were snow, it would be easily a foot-plus, but with rain, an inch-plus is still significant, especially as strong northeast winds wrap around the developing low. So, as I talked about in
today's Weather Journal column, we're too dry, maybe not quite cold enough, and the low pressure systems gets its act together too late for signficant snow in most of Southwest Virginia this time around.
For the latest national snow forecasts, including projected areas of heavy snow, visit the HPC's Winter Weather Page.
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