Floyd County Schools remain closed Thursday as Southwestern Virginia continues to try and dig out of the storm that struck five days ago. Same for Franklin and Carroll counties plus Roanoke City, while Montgomery, Patrick counties open late and Roanoke County goes on “virtual learning” through computers.
The next two days bring some snow, about an inch predicted, along with the coldest weather in more than two years, courtesy of an Arctic cold front that arrives today.
Reports Roanoke Times weather guru Kevin Myatt:
There does not appear to be a sequel lined up to Sunday’s winter storm on this Thursday and Friday in and near the Roanoke and New River valleys, but there may be some snow falling at times as the coldest weather in three years arrives by Saturday morning.
An Arctic cold front will move across our region today. Early this morning, milder, moist flow ahead of it has triggered some light rain, with temperatures in the mid to upper 30s. Temperatures will not move upward much today from current readings and will even start to drop after the front passes, especially west of Roanoke. Some snow is possible, again mainly west of Roanoke, behind the cold front today.
Weak waves of low-pressure will move northeast along the slowing front tonight and again late Friday. Each of these may again lift some moisture into the Arctic air, but will be focused progressively more east of our region. We may catch the western fringes of snow affecting central Virginia this afternoon and evening, and a somewhat stronger system near the coast late Friday could spread at least some moisture into cold air this far west, although the heaviest precipitation is likely to remain in northeast North Carolina and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
The National Weather Service in Blacksburg says the 33 degrees we see in most of Floyd County this morning is a high that will start dropping around 1 p.m. and will drop to 17 degrees or so by Friday morning with highs that day, maybe, reaching 23 degrees before plummeting to nine degrees or fewer overnight.
Then some warning, with a high of 32 on Saturday with 19 overnight low, then 35 on Sunday, 40 on Monday, 41 Tuesday before dropping again.