01/05/2025
Please pay attention and prep to take care of your pets! If outdoor pets cannot be brought inside, please be sure to provide a proper insulated shelter filled with straw (not hay or blankets) and the shelter should be sheilded from the wind. Pets should also have access to unfrozen water and food at all times.
Friends don’t let furry friends freeze to death!
FINAL CALL - Winter Storm THIS PM through TUES AM - Make Final Preps NOW through NOON...
Here are the updates, in the three phases...
PHASE ONE - Snow moves in from west to east, making it to the WV border around noon. The models continue to get heavy quick with the snow, and it's too much to discount using the 'yeah, but we never get any' principle. Once the snow starts, expect it to get steady quickly, to the point where some should see 1"/hr type accumulation rates right before it starts mixing over.
PHASE TWO - The change to sleet/ice will ride up from the south/west starting around 3pm today, followed then by a change to rain that 'eventually' reaches the maximum spread indicated on the Phase Two graphic around dawn Monday. Folks in the green closer to I-64 (like near Charleston) will stay longer in ice before finally getting to rain early Monday, which will result in dangerous conditions until the change is complete. This means an Ice Storm is STILL possible in these bordering areas even if you end up in rain/melting (once ice knocks the power out, it doesn't matter if it then rains, you know?) The WORST conditions to be out will be in that pink zone from this evening through Monday. Farther to the north near US-50, sleet and snow will still manage to hold on.
PHASE THREE - The cold air wraps back in as the main thrust of the storm departs to the east. This will put us in a traditional light snow that favors up-slope conditions in the east. I am seeing a persistent feature moving through the models though that delivers a small pulse of steadier snow near the US-50 corridor on its way out that can add yet more to the final totals there. The highest snow totals will exceed 10" in the north, generally along US-50 heading eastward to the Canaan Valley where probably something more like 15" will fall.
Assessing final snow totals along the I-64 corridor will still be very difficult, because the ice (and in places rain) will melt/compact what fell earlier, then some additional light snow will fall on that. One thing is for sure -- it will be VERY difficult to remove/shovel for folks that leave it until the end of the event to deal with it. But, I'd rather have snow on the bottom than ice!
Farther to the south, where the rain will dominate Monday morning, the snow/ice you do get will slush out and melt significantly before that finishing light snow returns later Monday. The roads will still have slick spots on them, perhaps even through Tuesday.
If all this hits, it will be DAYS before everything gets sorted out when it comes to power outages, snow removal, and the like. Temperatures will stay cold for the rest of the week!
Be careful, avoid travel when the roads are hazardous, and be sure to check up on your neighbors.
