Winter Storm — Lewis, West Virginia

2025-01-05 to 2025-01-06 · Lewis, West Virginia

Wider weather episode

A significant winter storm brought a mix of precipitation to West Virginia from January 5th to 7th and imposed accumulating ice and snow accumulations as a result. Wintry precipitation, falling as all snow initially, first spread into southwestern Virginia, southwestern West Virginia, and northeastern Kentucky around mid day on the 5th. Snow showers then spread northeastward during the afternoon, while pockets of warmer air filtered into the southern half of the state and caused precipitation to transition over to freezing rain late that afternoon and into the early evening. Ice accumulations ranging from a few tenths of an inch along the I-64 corridor to half an inch in the southeastern foothills were noted during the predawn hours on January 6th before transitioning back over to snow for the remainder of the event. Across north-central West Virginia, the heaviest snow bands occurred during a similar time of the predawn hours on the 6th, resulting in fresh snow ranging from 3 to 6 inches.

Sluggish movement of the culprit low pressure system continued to encourage accumulating snow showers across West Virginia on the evening of January 6th into the morning of the 7th. This brought overall storm totals to around 8 to 12 inches across much of the state, especially for those that received primarily snow through the duration of this event. For the southwestern portions of the state, the combination of ice and snow led to substantial impacts to trees and power lines. Many customers were without power in the midst of this storm, with delayed restoration efforts until later on January 7th due to the ongoing winter storm. The bulk of the power outages were encased within the southwestern coalfields and up the I-79 corridor, which aligned with where the delineation between snow and freezing rain took shape late on the 5th into the morning of the 6th.

The bulk of the snow showers then marched eastward before dawn on January 7th, giving reprieve to active weather for a few days.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1225666. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.