National Weather Service forecasters say the snow will continue to pound parts of West Virginia today.
Meteorologist Nick Webb says the northern mountains and the eastern panhandle could see between a foot and a foot-and-a-half of snow before the system moves out of the state.
“Accumulating snow for this (Wednesday) morning appears to be confined to the northern mountians and over into the eastern panhandle,” said Webb.
Webb said temperatures will moderate as the week winds down and many lowland areas receiving snow today will see it rapidly melt off on Thursday as temperatures get above freezing.
“This is pretty much going to be shutting off tonight and tomorrow, “Webb said. “Most of the accumulating snow is going to be during the day, primarily over the eastern mountains and northern panhandle.”
Thirty West Virginia counties called off school on Wednesday. Nine more went to school on a two-hour delay.
The heavy wet snow, predictably started to cause tree limbs to break and led to mounting power outages. Monongahela Power and Potomac Edison Power companies report just over 19,000 outages. Officials say it could be late Thursday before power is fully restored. Company officials say the most outages are in the mountain counties and lowlands of the eastern panhandle.