OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – We continue to see snow push through the area as the northwesterly flow means that the lake effect machine continues to be cranked up. The snow is coming in bands. Underneath the bands, the snow is coming down heavily, but everyone has seen several of these bands at this point. As of 8 a.m., we had seen 7.5″ at our Oak Hill studios, and it is still coming down.
Temperatures are cold, so it is fluffy snow at this point, and on the roads, there had been some melting early since they were relatively warm (temperatures on Saturday were in the 60s). Now the roads are snow-covered almost everywhere, especially the untreated ones.
The wind is quite gusty as well, making it feel even colder than the already cold air temperatures.
The winds are expected to continue to be gusty enough to prompt the National Weather Service to issue a Wind Advisory for parts of the area, although even locations outside of the advisory will see gusty winds as well.
The snow will continue through the rest of the night as well, so the winter weather alerts are also going to continue through early tomorrow morning.
By the time it’s all said and done, many higher elevation locations will see more than a foot of snow, making this the heaviest snowstorm of the season. One major difference between this storm and the ones from earlier in the season is the lack of staying power of the snow. With temperatures rising into the 40s and 50s, the snowpack will melt more quickly this time. Unfortunately, the melt will be aided and accompanied by possible heavy rains from another storm system coming from the west. The storm will have a lot of moisture from the Gulf to work with. When the heavy rain is combined with a deep snowpack, there could be issues with flooding later this week.
There is some light at the end of this tunnel filled with wild weather, however. For now, the weekend ahead is looking good, with highs in the middle 50s and plenty of sunshine.
Click below for a video version of the forecast…
