Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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The first report of snowfall depth in Roanoke released by the National Weather Service on Monday cited 7 inches as the storm total. Another report called it 9 inches. But the official snowfall, measured at WDBJ (Channel 7), ended up being only 3.6 inches.

So which is right? Maybe all of them.

The first part of the snow on Sunday occurred with temperatures near or slightly above the freezing mark. So, depending on subtle temperature changes related to elevation differences and patterns of urban development, snow stuck better at some places in the Roanoke Valley than it did in others.

Other factors that could have played a role in varying snow totals over a small area include uneven accumulation patterns between bare and grassy areas, the effects of drifting by winds, and the narrow banding of heavy snow that developed early Monday morning.

Regardless of how deep it got at your house, this will go down in the record books as only a 3.6-inch snowfall for Roanoke, making it similar to snows that occurred on Jan. 17, 2008; Feb. 6, 2007; and Feb. 11, 2006.

But looking at the entire Roanoke Valley, where many areas did legitimately have 6 to 9 inches, and the counties around, where up to 14 inches accumulated, it is clear that this winter storm overall was the biggest since a similar one on Feb. 28, 2005.