Winter Storm — Western Greenbrier, West Virginia

2025-01-05 to 2025-01-06 · Western Greenbrier, West Virginia

Event narrative

Around four inches of snow was reported in western Greenbrier County on January 6th, along with around a quarter of an inch of ice from freezing rain. Over 900 customers had lost power by 9 AM on January 6th. Several trees were downed, and some of which brought down power lines. Key Impacts: power outages, road closures, traffic accidents.

Wider weather episode

A major winter storm brought numerous impacts to West Virginia Sunday January 5th and into Monday January 6th. A strong surface low pressure system moved northeastward from the Central Plains and into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, with the associated warm front lifting northward from the southeast into the lower Mid Atlantic. Precipitation began as snow, but strong warm air advection ahead of the low pressure center, and behind the warm front, led to a transition to all liquid precipitation. Surface temperatures remained below freezing, and so a prolonged period of freezing rain led to ice accumulations up to a quarter of an inch overnight and during the Monday morning commute. Heaviest snowfall accumulations were north of Interstate 64, and heaviest ice accumulations were in the Greenbrier River Valley. Thousands had lost power by the morning of January 6th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1230189. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.