ROANOKE, Va. – A Weather Authority Alert Day has been issued for Friday, December 12th, for accumulating snowfall and the high potential for slick roadways.
Snow showers will begin very late tonight and overspread the area by daybreak on Friday. Snowfall is expected to taper off by mid-afternoon.
A Winter Weather Advisory is now in effect for the New River Valley, Roanoke Valley, Highlands Zone, and portions of the Lynchburg Zone. Southside should see little to no impact from this event.
All of this wintry mess will be caused by an Alberta clipper.
An Alberta Clipper is basically a very quick-moving low-pressure system that tracks southeast out of Alberta, Canada (How it got its name.)
The graphic below shows the upper-level track of this clipper.
Snow will begin around 12-2 AM Friday morning. As this is an overnight start to the precip, we will likely see an all-snowfall precip type.
By daybreak, snow will have overspread the region and easily make the morning commute slippery.
Snowfall will wrap up mid-afternoon. A brief transition to a wintry mix will happen before all precipitation wraps up by 5-6 PM.
In terms of impacts, this clipper system will not be nearly as impactful as what moved through this past Monday. We will still see widespread snowfall, a wintry mix to end precipitation, and, of course, power outages and icy roadways.
Snowfall accumulation map is posted below!