ROANOKE, Va. – While many across our area crave a big snow this winter, we have to go into the archives to actually get it. Around this time six years ago, a monster snowstorm was carving a path through the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
Between Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 of 2014, our region was blanketed in white.
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This produced icy conditions as far south as Texas and Alabama, while delivering a lot of snow to the Carolinas and Commonwealth.
Here are some “official” totals from around the area on that day.
Christiansburg: 23″
Blacksburg: 20.1″
Martinsville: 19.8″
Willis: 19.4″
Copper Hill: 19″
Roanoke: 19″
Rocky Mount: 16.5″
Radford: 16″
New Castle: 15.2″
Galax: 15"
Glasgow: 14.3″
Big Island: 14″
Huddleston: 14″
Hot Springs: 13"
Lexington: 13"
Pulaski: 13″
Covington: 12.5″
Wytheville: 12.1″
Stuart: 12″
Buena Vista: 10.9″
Chatham: 10″
Lynchburg: 10"
Appomattox: 9.9″
Brookneal: 8.2″
South Boston: 7″
Danville: 6.3"
You can see these totals reconstructed on the map below.
How does a storm like this come together? Simply put, you need enough cold air and a healthy amount of moisture to mesh over the area.
A large drop in the jet stream helped make that happen. When the jet stream drops south, colder air can invade the area. At the same time, this favored storm development over the southern U.S., which helped feed our region with a lot of moisture.
There aren’t any signs of a large snowstorm within the next week. We’ll get another cold snap around the 20th-23rd of February. Whether or not we can get a storm system to mesh with a fraction of that colder air will determine whether or not we get snow before February 2020 comes to a close.