StormTracker 8: Snowstorm for Virginia Wednesday

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) - Here we go as a winter storm is on the way to the area for Wednesday into Thursday.

Here are the key points for you to know about it.

#1.  There is a Winter Storm Warning for much of the area with Advisories to our west.  So this storm is “upside down” with the heavier snow east and southeast vs west and northwest.

#2.  It will start mid to late morning tomorrow, pick up in the afternoon and evening and then gradually wind down later Thursday morning.

#3.  There could be a very sharp and quick drop off in the snowfall amounts on the western and northwestern side of this storm, and that drop off line cuts through parts of the metro Richmond area.

So here is the bottom line on what I see with the storm and the snow forecast.  Estimating that we see a rain to snow ration of 13:1 (so 1” of rain would be 13” of snow) west of the Metro (but that includes Western Hanover) you are in the 2”-5” range. East of that you are in the 5”-10” range (lower west, higher east). 

Inside that purple band is where we could see 7”-12” of snow.  Places such as Petersburg, Sussex, West Point, etc look to be the big winners.

This evening, we have partly cloudy skies with the clouds thickening after midnight.  Lows in the lower 20s.

Snow moves in tomorrow morning, mid to late morning here.  Remember it is dry near the ground so it will evaporate to state.  

Then it picks up in the afternoon and evening hours when that blue band could see 1” per hour at times.

Thursday morning it winds down, and we will see it out of here around lunch.  Late in the day we could see some sunshine and highs near freezing.

Friday-Sunday is fine, but Sunday night and Monday we could see some showers.

Assuming that we see a good snow melt, we should make it into the 50s next week.