Monday, February 02, 2009
Weather columnist Kevin Myatt: Another week, another halfhearted storm moves into Southwest Virginia
Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.
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@roanoke.com
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Recent columns
- We got graupel, but not on official record
- Moisture could get caught up in cold blast
- Forecast for Weather Journal: Partly print, with frequent Internet
- Column archive
Read the Weather Journal blog
- 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
- Coldest morning of winter so far likely across much of Southwest Virginia; Tuesday precipitation looking doubtful
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Another week begins, and we have another disorganized system that might bring a little snow to the area.
We've done this three weeks in a row with three very different types of storm systems. The first one brought a few inches to some locations south of Roanoke, but only a dusting to the southern part of the Roanoke Valley. The second one turned into a very cold rain/light icing situation.
So this could be strike three for Roanoke, where our snowfall total has been 0.4 inches since Nov. 18.
This time, disturbances digging through a southward diving jet stream may spin up a low pressure system to our east along the coast. That's a little too late to do a lot here, but as the disturbances move overhead, they may be able to kick off some rain later today, and perhaps snow overnight into Tuesday.
How quickly cold air is able to move into whatever moisture is left will be the key to whether anyone gets any serious accumulation out of this. The better chance will be in higher elevations, especially west of Interstate 81. Don't expect a lot, but an inch or two is not outside the realm of possibility.
Off and on mountain snow showers will continue Tuesday and Wednesday, and a mild period is likely to develop after this week.
So, whatever the groundhog sees or doesn't see today, winter may take a break for a while to either reload or retreat.
