We’ve almost made it through a hard winter.
Winter on the meteorological calendar ends in two days as February fades into March. On the wall calendar, it goes on until three weeks deep in March when we reach the vernal equinox. We all know winter sometimes lands some haymakers in March and even early April, whatever the calendar you use.
Looking ahead from a mild, calm spell that is ending our February, there will be some cold fronts, starting this weekend, that will stir windy chill again and maybe even snow flirtations in early March. There is no indication at this point, however, that there will be a relapse of anything like what we’ve had in much of the past two months. There also continue to be strong indications of a sharp turn to a rapid arrival of truly springlike weather in mid-March. Before long, we’ll be talking here more about severe thunderstorms and tornadoes than snow.
But, no matter how much or how little wintry weather is left to go, there is no doubt this has been a real winter, a hard one, an especially impactful one compared to several preceding ones, even if most of the snow totals in Southwest and Southside Virginia aren’t all that large (some exceptions near the western fringes). Some areas in and around the Roanoke and New River valleys are even a good bit below normal for snowfall, once again, as the heaviest snow has managed to go north, west, east and south, or else turn to ice after only a couple inches.
Some snow fans remain frustrated that this winter hasn’t had that one storm that thumped a foot or more — or even 6 inches or more — on a wide section of our region. A stripe near Interstate 64 in Alleghany, Rockbridge, and northern parts of Craig and Botetourt counties got 10-plus inches on Feb. 10 while it was changing to ice and sleet farther south, and some higher elevations of the southwest corner and western fringe of Virginia have gotten 6 or more inches a couple times. But this winter has not quite got the pieces together for a large snowfall covering half or more of our region.
Aside from the destructive flooding that swamped the Southwest corner of our state, this has been a winter more about ice than snow in the coverage area of Cardinal News.
A memorable winter 31 years ago had some remarkable parallels to this one.
Icy winter of 1993-94
The 1993-94 winter is remembered for two big ice storms in our region. Sound familiar?
This winter had ice storms on Jan. 5-6 and Feb. 11-13 that left over 100,000 and 200,000 utility customers in Virginia, respectively, without power. (The latter number went back to 200,000 in high winds a few days later.) The January ice storm affected a stripe of states west to east from Missouri to Virginia, while the February ice storm was almost entirely confined to the southern half of Virginia, extending some into northwest North Carolina.
Technically, the second 1994 ice storm wasn’t in meteorological winter, as it occurred March 2-3. It was a regional ice storm particularly damaging around the New River Valley and parts of Southwest Virginia while there was heavy snow in Northern Virginia. Thousands lost power after having it restored from the previous ice storm three weeks before.
The first ice storm in 1994, on Feb. 10-11, is infamous far beyond the borders of our commonwealth, one of the most widespread and destructive ice storms in U.S. history. Some parts of northern Mississippi — where ice was as much as 6 inches thick (a quarter-inch ice accretion is considered the start of significant damage) — didn’t get power restored for a month, with widespread tree and power line damage stretching across many states from Texas to New York. Nearly 300,000 customers lost power in Virginia.
Further underlining the parallels to this winter, the February ice storm over much of the region was also accompanied by severe flooding in the southwest corner of the state, particularly Wise County, where up to 6 inches of rain fell as temperatures managed to rise above freezing.
Despite the ice storms and prolonged and extreme cold temperatures, snowfall totals were not excessive across the modern-day coverage area of Cardinal News, stretching from the Southwest corner east across Southside Virginia and north to near Interstate 64, mostly near or somewhat below normal.
Much like this winter, the 1993-94 winter had a propensity for light to moderate snowfall that would often change to sleet and freezing rain. The atmospheric setup never came together for a widespread large snow across our region, just as it never quite happened this season.
Going into this week, this winter had averaged 36.2 degrees at Lynchburg, with 11.8 inches of snow for the season, while the 1993-94 winter at Lynchburg averaged 36.2 degrees with 12.1 inches of snow — nearly identical statistics.
Generally speaking, across the region, the 1993-94 winter was a little snowier than this one, with a moderate snowfall across the region just before Christmas to add to what came in small to medium increments in January through early March. It was also quite a bit colder, and most areas got somewhat more ice in 1994 than even this icy winter.
Like this winter, the 1993-94 winter came on the heels of a handful of years with mild winters and not much snow or ice, although it was really the “Superstorm” blizzard of the preceding March in 1993 that was the big breakout. The 1990-91 winter was similar to our nearly snowless 2022-23 winter, with seasonal snow totals under 3 inches common across much of our region.
Like this winter, there was a sharply cold Arctic dip in the middle to latter part of January, even more severe in 1994 than it was last month, with many below-zero temperatures even beyond the geographically enhanced temperature sinks in the mountains. Burke’s Garden dropped to -17, Blacksburg to -11, Roanoke to -6, and Lynchburg to -4. Danville’s -1 on Jan. 20 was the last time it would be that cold there for the next 23 years.
As we pondered a few weeks ago where winter might go in February (the 20 percent-chance “Hard Arctic reload” won, by the way), the old saying was restated that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. The early months of 1994 and 2025 certainly have familiar sounds.
No more drought, for now
Recall that right before the mid-month onslaught of ice, snow and rain, we were actually having a fairly dry winter, and a 600-acre wildfire took out at least one home in northern Franklin County in late January.
But with rainfall amounts of 5 to 9 inches common that rank among the top three to six Februaries on record for wetness at multiple sites in our region with over 100 years of weather data, drought concerns have been largely washed away, with flooding cleanup having replaced dryness issues, much like what happened in the fall after Helene, though on a smaller scale.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows a narrow strip of “abnormally dry” riding the southern border of the state east of the Blue Ridge across Southside — this area largely missed the heavy downpours of Feb. 15 that tracked just north. Everywhere else is clear of any stage of dryness.
The February bounty of moisture likely ensures that we won’t have a summer of dried-up reservoirs and water shortages, but drought sufficient for agricultural issues could re-emerge in a few weeks if dryness re-asserts itself in 2025 as it did much of 2024. There is no sign of that happening soon with outlooks leaning wet in March.
Journalist Kevin Myatt has been writing about weather for 20 years. His weekly column, appearing on Wednesdays, is sponsored by Oakey’s, a family-run, locally-owned funeral home with locations throughout the Roanoke Valley. Sign up for his weekly newsletter: