StormTracker 8: James River in Flood; snow on Wednesday

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -The James River is in Moderate Flood right now and a Winter Storm is on the way to the area for Wednesday and into Thursday.

We’ll talk about the river in a bit, but the big story is the next winter storm for the middle of the week.  We have Winter Storm Watches in the area, but you will notice they end going northward, that is because this is going to be a southern storm with most of the action south of a Charlottesville to Tappahannock line!

Here is how we get there.   Skies will be fair tonight, and we will cool off into the lower to middle 20s.

Clouds will be on the way in here during the afternoon hours tomorrow and we will have a high in the lower to middle 40s with very dry air near the ground.   That will allow for us to cool down into the lower 20s overnight on Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, we will start the day off with some clouds, and while the radar might show stuff, it will be evaporating for a few hours at the onset to saturate the air.

By midday we should see snow developing over us and continue through the afternoon with the heaviest snow in the evening.

Sinc this storm is not “phasing” it will move more ENE instead of NE until it gets well off the coastline. This is going to suppress the snow down to the south of the area.

Thursday morning, we be on the backside of the system with snow diminishing and coming to an end.

OK, for the $64 Billion Dollar question—how much snow are we getting?

I am basing things on the storm be suppressed to the south, a mix confined to the Hampton Roads area, and a Rain to snow ration of 13:1.  So Central Virginia gets 4”-8” of snow—heaviest south. 2”-4” of snow northwest of us, and 1”-2” of snow where they got hit hard last week.

After that, we are quiet until the second part of the weekend when we will have the risk of a few showers.  But it will stay cool. 

On the James River, it is above the 15’ moderate stage level.

The river should crest near 17 feet and then start to subside after we have the snow.