CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An approaching winter storm has been tricky for meteorologists to forecast because of a pocket of warm air from the south that’s expected to move into West Virginia this weekend.
The storm will start with all snow late Friday night in the southwestern part of the state, from I-64 south, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Tony Edwards.
“It will start out with snow, maybe a little bit of freezing rain in the southern coalfields early, but then we will kind of transition back and forth between rain and snow, especially in the lower elevations, as we move through the day on Sunday,” Edwards said during a Friday appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”
The mountain counties will likely stay all snow this weekend along with the upper part of north central West Virginia, Edwards said.
“The bulk of the lower elevations are going to go back and forth. It’s kind of a tricky forecast,” Edwards said.
The warm air from the south will wedge its way west of the mountains. Edwards said that same pattern quite often happens with West Virginia snow events.
“That’s going to keep your accumulations a little lower in the valleys. We’re probably ranging from an inch to two to three inches in the lower elevations. That warm air won’t make it into the mountains, you get up near Snowshoe probably six to eight inches (of snow),” Edwards said.
A Winter Storm Warning has been issued from Saturday morning through Sunday evening for
for parts of Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, Pocahontas, Randolph, Grant, Hardy, Pendleton, Mercer, Summers, Monroe and Greenbrier counties. Sleet and ice are possible in the Beckley and Meadow Bridge areas with heavy snow accumulations, possibly as many as 8 inches, through the Greenbrier Valley north toward Elkins and into parts of the eastern panhandle.
A Winter Weather Advisory begins early Saturday morning through Sunday evening for Kanawha, Mingo, Logan, Boone, Clay, McDowell, Wyoming, Jackson, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Roane, Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie, Doddridge, Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Harrison, Taylor, Upshur, Barbour, Wayne, Cabell, Mason, Lincoln and Putnam counties.