Winter Storm — Roanoke, Virginia

2025-01-05 to 2025-01-06 · Roanoke, Virginia

Event narrative

Between one and two inches of snow fell across Roanoke County from January 5th through January 6th, with the highest amount of two inches reported in to the south southwest of Roanoke. Between 0.25 to 0.6 inches of ice accumulation was reported, with the highest report of 0.6 inches in Glenvar. Almost 4,500 customers had lost power by the morning of January 6th. Key Impacts: power outages and traffic accidents.

Wider weather episode

A major winter storm brought numerous impacts to Virginia from Sunday January 5th 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 from a tenth to up to three quarters 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 New River Valley and northward into the Roanoke and Southern Shenandoah Valleys. Significant tree damage was observed, especially in Franklin County, where hundreds of trees were downed from the weight of ice. Thousands had lost power by the morning of January 6th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1231115. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.