CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Residents across southern West Virginia awoke Friday morning to an unexpected site. A white blanket covered the ground and continued to accumulate well beyond what anybody expected. Even Meteorologist Ross Giarratana at the National Weather Service in Charleston admitted the results exceeded the forecast.
“The snow amounts certainly did over achieve was was forecast,” he said. “We had some pretty steady snow bands which developed and produced a little more snow than we anticipated.”
There were two to three inches of snow along the I-64 Corridor between Charleston and Huntington. South of I-64 there were even larger amounts, some of it piling up to five inches in isolated areas. It was en enough to cancel school in much of southern West Virginia.
The transition however, is happening and Giarratana expected the trend would continue throughout Friday afternoon.
“Surface temperatures are rising above freezing and it’s transitioning from snow to rain,” he explained. “We’re going to see that transition across the lowlands.”
A winter weather advisory remained in effect for Friday night. Giarratana expected higher elections might get another one to three inches of snow Friday evening.
But the weekend will bring a complete transformation.
“We’ll warm to the mid 50’s across much of the lowlands Saturday afternoon , but it will stay in the 40’s in the eastern panhandle,” he explained. “But Sunday, we’re looking at mid to upper 60’s in some areas of southern West Virginia and even in the 50’s across the higher elevations.”
The rain and warm temperatures will caused the snow accumulation from Friday morning to rapidly disappear.