Snow began falling at about 0500 (5:00 a.m.) in parts of Floyd County as the “big one” starts on a Friday morning.
Schools, of course, are closed. So are a number of businesses. The Friday Night Jamboree is off and other musical events for Saturday are cancelled.k Reports of slick roads began appearing on social media sites.
With the temperature below 20 degrees, Winter Storm Jonas is delivering its full fury along the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast parts of the United States and the National Weather Service says “tens of millions” are under severe storm warnings.
Officially, the forecast predicts a foot or more of snow during the day on Friday, another 5-8 inches overnight and 1-3 more on Saturday. That, forecasters say, is “the low end” of the expectation scale.
The National Weather Service latest weather warning issued at 4:19 a.m.:
… WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM EST SUNDAY…
* LOCATIONS… MOST OF SOUTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA… EAST TO ALONG AND NORTH OF HIGHWAY 460 FROM THE NEW RIVER VALLEY EAST TO LYNCHBURG AND APPOMATTOX.
* HAZARD TYPES… HEAVY SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS… SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 16 TO 24 INCHES… WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS ALONG THE BLUE RIDGE NORTH OF ROANOKE.
* TIMING… SNOW WILL SPREAD NORTH ACROSS THE AREA EARLY THIS MORNING. SNOW CONTINUES THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. SNOW WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES… ESPECIALLY FROM THIS MORNING INTO THE AFTERNOON.
* IMPACTS… SIGNIFICANT TRAVEL IMPACTS DUE TO SNOW COVERED ROADS. TRAVEL WILL LIKELY BECOME IMPOSSIBLE IN MANY AREAS. WINDS WILL BE GUSTY ESPECIALLY LATER TONIGHT AND SATURDAY WHICH COULD RESULT IN LOWER VISIBILITIES AND BLOWING SNOW.
* WINDS… NORTHEAST 5 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES… MAINLY IN THE 20S TO LOWER 30S.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL… KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT… FOOD… BLANKET… AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.
THE PUBLIC IS ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SNOWFALL AMOUNTS TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE VIA EMAIL AT RNK.
Be careful out there. Updates as we receive them will be posted throughout the storm.