1/28: Update

Here's a pretty cool false-color satellite image showing snow cover from the departing Nor'Easter. Most snow across central and southeast Virginia has already melted with a bit still hanging on across northwestern portions of the state. It's also interesting how you can clearly see where the lower elevations of the Shenandoah River Basin reside between Massanutten Mountain to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east.

In case you missed the blog post yesterday...2 systems to impact the area through the next several days:

1) A clipper diving across the Great Lakes will drag a cold front through the area Thursday into Thursday night. This will spawn a few scattered showers and mountain snow showers. Upslope areas of West Virginia including Snowshoe and Canaan Valley resorts along with Garrett County in far western Maryland could see a couple of inches fall through Friday. Once again, no accumulation expected in the Shenandoah Valley...just a few rain showers possibly mixing with a few flakes time to time. There may also be light accumulations in southwest VA generally west of I-77.

2) We'll then have a system form across the Four Corners Region and spread east towards our area by Sunday. To sum things up, this does look to be our next widespread shot at wintry weather...but I don't see it as a huge snowstorm at this time. The images of widespread, massive amounts of snow floating around social media should be ignored. There are two main scenarios on the table. The first would involve more southern/northern stream interaction and would result in a stronger, more western tracking system. This would likely lead to a wintry mix to rain type event for the Valley. The second scenario would feature less stream interaction and a quicker, more southern tracking system leading to a quick hitting period of light snow. We should have a better handle on things by Friday when energy from both the northern and southern streams is finally sampled over land. At this point, just something to keep in mind as many will be traveling for Super Bowl activities.