Heavy Snow — Southeast Pocahontas, West Virginia

2018-03-21 to 2018-03-22 · Southeast Pocahontas, West Virginia

Wider weather episode

A surface low pressure system stalled out across the middle Ohio River Valley on the 20th, bringing rain to the region. As an upper level low dropped through, cold air rushed in and quickly changed the rain to snow. Bands of heavy, wet snow moved through the northern and central mountains of West Virginia. These were widespread enough to provide 5-8 inches of snow, with some localized amounts of 10-12 inches. Across the lower elevations of the western slopes, generally 1 to 3 inches of snow fell, as the surface remained too warm for significant accumulations.

The highest snowfall measurement came from the cooperative observer near Frost, where they measured 12.1 inches, and 9 inches accumulated at Snowshoe. In Elkins, 9.5 inches of snow fell with 8 inches around Beverly. Even farther south, across the central mountains, heavy snow fell, such as 10 inches at White Oak in Raleigh County and nearly 8 inches in the Craigsville area of Nicholas County. The heavy, wet nature of the snow also led to power outages in some areas. Nicholas County was the hardest hit, with nearly 2000 impacted customers, Webster and Fayette each had several hundred customers effected.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 736980. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.