OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – We continue to track a strong winter storm that will greatly affect our area throughout the weekend and beyond. Here is the latest from the StormWatch weather team…
This evening, the storm is beginning to take shape over the southern Plains, and many parts of Texas and Arkansas are seeing mixed precipitation, whether it’s sleet or freezing rain. Further north, it’s all snow, and big cities such as Oklahoma City and Kansas City are starting to see snow.
With the storm taking shape and expected to have huge impacts through much of the nation, a very long stretch of the U.S. – stretching from New England to New Mexico – is seeing some sort of advisories or warnings this evening.
Tomorrow, the wintry mess will spread east-northeastward and will make its way into our area in the afternoon, picking up during the late evening.
On Sunday, an area of warmer than freezing air will move in from the southwest and will change the precipitation to sleet and then eventually freezing rain.
The type of precipitation we see depends on the depth of the warm layer and where it sets up relative to the surface. Here is a nice graphic explaining how we get each type…
The freezing rain lasts into Sunday afternoon, with some rain possibly mixing in for good measure. We’re predicting an average high of 31 degrees. If it gets above 32 degrees, the precipitation will be almost entirely rain. I think that’s unlikely, but it is possible that some areas will see rain, especially in the lower elevations. Later Sunday, the warm tongue – as it’s called in Meteorology – will go away and the cold air returns. That will change the precipitation back to all snow. That will last through Monday, with most of the snow in the mountains before it ends on Tuesday.
By the time the storm is gone, we’ll see quite a bit of snow in the high elevations and in the Greenbrier Valley. Significant snow is in the forecast for areas along the US-19/I-77 corridor and lesser amounts in the southwestern areas.
A big part of the reason for the smaller snow totals in the southern coalfields is that the freezing rain amounts will be higher there.
After the storm is gone, we do have another short shot of snow towards the middle of the week as a clipper system comes through, but the big story of the post-storm period is the cold. Temperatures will be around 20 degrees below the seasonal norms.
Check out the link below for a video version of the forecast…
