StormTracker8: Winter storm to drop 2″-4″ of snow Saturday

Richmond, Va. (WRIC) -- Clear skies will be with us early this evening, but a few clouds will move in overnight making it partly cloudy. It will be a cold night with lows around 10 across Metro Richmond; some of you to the north will be in the single digits while those of you to the South will be in the lower teens.

We will start your Friday off at a little bit of sunshine, but clouds will quickly increase throughout the day making for a cloudy afternoon with highs in the middle to upper twenties.

A few flurries will move in later Friday night with Lowe's in the middle to upper teens.

Those flurries are out ahead of the developing winter storm that will move in for Saturday. What we are watching is a weather system moving across the Southern Tennessee Valley that will then develop a brand-new storm off of the coast of Wilmington North Carolina. That storm will rapidly intensify as the barometric pressure drops and that will give us snow across the region on Saturday. The snow will continue Saturday afternoon into Saturday night and come to an end early Sunday morning probably before Daybreak for areas along and west of I-95 and shortly after Daybreak east of 95. Total accumulations will range for 2-4” across Metro Richmond with areas to the north and west of Richmond seeing a Dusting-2”. Area is well south and east of Richmond along the Virginia North Carolina line to the Tidewater will see the heaviest snow and in those areas it could accumulate to 4-8”.

With that rapid intensification we will also be looking at some rather strong winds from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Winds could easily gust up to 40 mph across Central Virginia from that storm but along the coast those gusts could be at or greater than 50 mph. Our high temperatures on Saturday will only top out in the lower 20s but when you factor in that wind look for wind chills in the single digits. After the snow pulls out Sunday, we will see partly sunny skies, and it will remain very cold with highs in the middle 20s and wind chills in the teens.

Mostly sunny skies will return to Central Virginia for Monday which is Groundhog Day with highs in the lower 30s.

Tuesday will also feature mostly sunny skies, and it will remain cold with highs near 35.

A weak weather system will approach the region on Wednesday giving us more in the way of clouds with highs in the upper 30s.

Thursday will be the warmest day of the past two weeks with highs in the upper 30s to near 40 under partly sunny skies.

Another weak weather system will approach the region next Friday giving us Cloudy Skies with highs in the middle to upper 30s.