Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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• Winter trying again to show up with snow
• We got graupel, but not on official record
• Moisture could get caught up in cold blast
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• Many looking past mild, quiet week toward possibly wild weekend
• Sprinkles or flurries possible Tuesday, but maybe something bigger for the weekend?
• For now, it looks like a quiet, mostly mild week ahead for SW Virginia
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In all the talk about cold and snow potential (mostly unrealized) the past few weeks, the long-term drought has been on the back burner.

It's not a growing season, but rain or melted snow would be beneficial right now to restore reservoirs, improve water tables, dampen wildfire fuels and moisten the soil deeply before the next growing season begins in the spring.

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, the Roanoke Valley remains in moderate drought while most of the New River Valley and points west into far Southwest Virginia are in severe drought.

If this week's storm system lives up to expectations, considerable help for the drought could be on the way.

A strong low pressure system is expected to develop in the south-central U.S., near Oklahoma, and move northeastward toward the Ohio Valley and New England.

Such a track will be too far west for much in the way of wintry precipitation, as the storm's counterclockwise rotation will sweep in plenty of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.

That moisture could be squeezed out as 1 to 2 inches of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, with locally heavier amounts.

Colder air will move in behind the storm, and there is chance some snow could fall late Wednesday or Thursday.

But there are signals that a break in the persistent early season cold may be on the way in the next week to 10 days.