CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There will be snow on the shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day in parts of West Virginia.
Sunday afternoon’s rain was expected to change to heavy, wet snow in portions of the Mountain State by Sunday night, with the help of dropping temperatures, and continue into the day Monday.
The National Weather Service had issued Winter Weather Advisories — meaning the possibility of two to four inches of accumulation from the storm — for the following counties:
Boone, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Kanawha, Roane, Wirt, Calhoun, Mingo, Logan, Fayette, Upshur, Cabell, Wayne, Mason, Jackson, Lincoln, Putnam, Raleigh, Barbour, Jefferson, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Mineral, Preston, Tucker
Meteorologists said the largest amounts of snow in those areas were expected to fall before 11 p.m. Sunday in areas along and north of the Interstate 64 corridor.
However, “We do expect the snow to hang around, really, up until the mid-morning (Monday),” Liz Sommerville, an NWS meteorologist, told MetroNews on Sunday.
Snow accumulations could be much higher in other areas and that may mean the possibility of power outages because of the weight of what was forecasted to be a wet snow.
A Winter Storm Warning was in effect through Monday for Braxton, Nicholas, Webster, Summers, Monroe and Greenbrier counties. Four to six inches of snow were possible in many of those areas, with close to ten inches in the forecast for the higher elevations near Interstate 64.
The National Weather Service also issued a Winter Storm Warning into Monday for Pocahontas, Randolph, Pendleton, Grant and Hardy counties where more than six inches of snow were possible, especially in elevations above 3,000 feet.
Temperatures were expected to fall through the day Sunday and into the night.
Sommerville said this kind of snow sometimes falls in March. “We’ve had snow as late as April,” she said. “It’s not unusual to get snow in March.”
Thursday is the first official day of spring.