WOAY-TV (Oak Hill, WV): Yesterday, temperatures were mild as rain, thunder, and damaging winds blew throughout the region. However, we dipped 35 degrees in just 12 hours, bringing snow into the region overnight and into the morning. Chief Meteorologist Chad Merrill and Meteorologist Christian Boteler were at Babcock State Park to take in the snow, explaining the details of the recent snowfall we’ve seen:
TEMPERATURE: The temperature dropped from 63° to 28° at the Raleigh County Memorial Airport in just 12 hours yesterday. This makes yesterday the 11th largest drop in temperature for March in the area. The massive drop resulted in overnight snow and some slick spots on the roads this morning, which we expect to continue overnight into tomorrow morning. We will see more of these rises and drops through the month, so don’t store away the winter gear quite yet.
SMALL SNOWFLAKES: Did you notice that the falling snowflakes were much smaller than seen previously in the season? The reasons for decreased snowflake size are the snow growth zone being lower to the ground and having limited moisture to pull from the atmosphere, thus producing smaller snowflakes. The snow growth zone is the area within the atmosphere where large snowflake growth is favored. This weather sounding from yesterday shows the low snow growth zone and the limited amount of moisture that the storm can pull from, making for smaller snowflakes.
Compare this to a storm earlier in the year, such as February 11th, and you’ll see that the snow growth zone is much higher in the atmosphere and has more moisture the storm can pull from to form snow, thus having much larger snowflakes.
Here is a comparison between today’s storm (top) and the snow from February 11th (bottom) from the same location. You’ll notice that the snow doesn’t cover nearly as much ground, and the flakes are much smaller from today’s storm than the storm on the 11th. This is all thanks to the snow growth zone and the amount of moisture the storm can pull from the atmosphere.
Unfortunately, this is not going to be the last snowfall in March, with cold shots expected through the month. Keep the winter gear out and stay tuned with the StormWatch 4 Team as the month goes on.
