CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sections of West Virginia could end up with as much as 8 inches of snow out of a system that pass over the state Monday afternoon through early Tuesday morning.
The National Weather Service has more than two dozen counties under a Winter Storm Warning. It’s unusual for a forecast that has the southern coalfields getting as much snow or more than the eastern mountains but that’s a characteristic of this storm.
Winter Storm Warning. (NWS graphic)
Meteorologist Megan Keibler at the National Weather Service in Charleston said the storm is approaching from eastern Kentucky and will enter southern counties Monday afternoon. It will then head northeast. She said heavier bands of snow could drop a few inches of snow an hour.
“If that moves over a certain area they’re going to see locally higher amounts of snow in the those heavier snow bands,” Keibler said. “Otherwise, we just more into the more light progressive snow here and there.”
The counties under the Winter Storm Warning include McDowell, Wyoming, Raleigh, Boone, Fayette, Mingo, Logan, Lincoln, Putnam, Kanawha, Cabell, Jackson, Roane, Calhoun, Clay, Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Upshur, Barbour, Nicholas, Webster, Pocahontas, Randolph, Tucker and Preston counties until 10 a.m. Tuesday.
A Monday afternoon graphic from the National Weather Service said the southern coalfields could end up with 6 to 8 inches of snow, the Kanawha Valley 6 inches, the eastern mountains 6-8 inches, the Huntington are 4 to 6 inches and the Clarksburg area 3-4 inches.
Coalfield counties and the Kanawha Valley got the first wave of snow early Monday morning. A brief break in the storm helped road crews catch up, according to Charleston Public Works Director Brent Webster
“We were able to use this lull to try and catch-up but it’s already trying to come back,” Webster said.
Charleston is running salt trucks and plows on 17 routes, Webster said.
“All of our routes are being worked but on some of them we might fall behind because of equipment issues or it’s snow so hard at some point,” Webster said.
“Hopefully pre-treated roads will help with that. It just really depends on how fast snow can fall and accumulate on roads and that’s going to allow for that slick travel possibility,” she said.
Webster said primary routes will get the most attention.
“When it is actively snowing you’re just concentrating on getting one lane through an area, then you can go back and get he second lane,” he said.
The middle of the week will be cold but quiet but meteorologists are keeping an eye on another storm system that could arrive at the end of the week, Keibler said.
“Maybe by the end of the week we are watching another system come through—winter is here,” Keibler said.