Monday, February 08, 2010
Weather columnist Kevin Myatt: Expect February to be cold and white
Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.
kevin.myatt
@roanoke.com
981-3341
Weather with Kevin Myatt
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
- Weather Journal blog
#swvawx on Twitter
@KevinMyattWx
We may not see grass again until March.
It will take something more than the highs in the mid- to upper 30s projected this week to make a serious dent in the calf- to knee-high carpet of slushy, icy, snowy white that blankets much of Southwest Virginia, the result of winter storms on consecutive weekends.
The weather pattern, with its consistent high-pressure blocking over Greenland forcing cold air masses south into the eastern half of North America, shows no signs of allowing any kind of meaningful warming for at least the next two weeks.
What's more, we will probably yet add to wintry coating.
A storm system on Tuesday is likely to bring a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow to Southwest Virginia. Even if it were to warm a little and just rain, that rain would be absorbed into the snowpack and frozen hard by the windy chill that will follow the system.
Unlike the past two weeks, there is no surefire prospect for a weekend winter storm -- but there is a possibility.
A low-pressure system is expected to develop in the Gulf of Mexico late this week. It is uncertain now whether that storm will move eastward across Florida, safely south of us, or make an ominous turn northeast that could fling another round of thick moisture into our cold air.
Whether or not there is a storm system this weekend, there are additional storm systems lined up into the Pacific that will have a chance to encounter cold air near us and dump more snow.
February is likely to be adorned in white from end to end.
Weather Journal runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
