Saturday, February 18, 2012
Snow Coming—-Where Will It Go?
Update: Sunday Storm Keeps Experts Guessing
A snowstorm heading toward West Virginia Sunday has been a little difficult to track for meteorologists. It’s not so much if the snow will hit some parts of the state, but how much.
Tracking models have been constantly changing but it appears the snow will arrive Sunday morning and continue through most of the day.
Meteorologists say this is a southern storm. There will be moisture coming from the south colliding with cold air from a high pressure system.
Snowfall amounts predicted Saturday for Sunday ranged from 1 to 4 inches in the Charleston-Huntington area to 4-8 inches in the southern coalfields. Forecasters point out a more northerly track could increase those amounts.
Most of the snow in West Virginia is expected to be in the southern coalfields through Beckley and up through the Greenbrier Valley. The National Weather Service’s Winter Storm Watch covers Cabell and Kanawha counties south and up the eastern mountains to an area north of Elkins.
Meteorologists say the storm will not head up the east coast. It will quickly go out to the Atlantic Ocean after hitting West Virginia and southern Virginia.
Saturday’s sunshine with temperatures in the 50s made any approaching storm difficult to think about.
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What could be one of the more significant snowstorms of the season should arrive Saturday night and Sunday in West Virginia.
“We’re expecting a system to move up from the south,“ said Meteorologist John Sikora of the National Weather Service in Charleston. “It looks like the southern portion of the state in the coalfields and up through the Greenbrier Valley are going to have the best shot.“
Sikora says moisture will come from the south and collide with an upper atmosphere system of cold air from the north. The significant factor will be where those two meet, it could determine how far north the system moves.
“Anywhere from six to twelve inches, possibly more in the higher elevations, depending on how this sets up,“ Sikora said.
The first of the storm should arrive as rain on Saturday night, but quickly transition into snow. Snowfall will be heavy at times all day on Sunday. The system should be out of West Virginia by Monday.
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