Heavy Snow — Carroll, Virginia

2009-12-18 to 2009-12-19 · Carroll, Virginia

Event narrative

From 12 to 14 inches fell across the county making travel extremely hazardous. A snow-related fatality occurred when 68-year old woman was thrown from her 2000 Chevrolet Blazer after driving off a snowy road.

Wider weather episode

Low pressure tracked from the northeast Gulf coast early on December 18th reaching a position near Alma, Georgia as a 997 mb low by Friday the 18th at 5 PM EST. The storm continued moving northeast and deepened to a 986 mb low near Cape Hatteras by 10 AM December 19th. Heavy snow began around midday on the 18th and snows rapidly accumulated to warning criteria levels by late afternoon or early evening in all of the Virginia counties. All forms of travel were rendered extremely difficult for several days due to this storm and numerous vehicle accidents were reported. Final snow totals ranged from less than 6 inches in the far southeast counties to over 25 inches in parts of Alleghany, Rockbridge, Montgomery and Bath counties. This was the biggest snowstorm to affect western Virginia since the January 6-8, 1996 storm. Several stations set December single-storm snowfall records from this storm including Roanoke and Blacksburg.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 207735. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.