A chilly Thanksgiving ahead, but nothing like the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950

The term “Black Friday” for the Friday after Thanksgiving was decades away from widespread popular usage in 1950, but for most of Virginia near and west of the Blue Ridge, and even more so for states to our west, Nov. 24, 1950, was a decidedly White Friday.

This Thanksgiving weekend, marking the 75th anniversary of the Great Appalachian Storm, will have a touch of a wintry feel for Cardinal News’ Southwest and Southside Virginia coverage area as a cold front brings 30s and 40s high temperatures and teens to 20s lows, closer to normal Christmas temperatures to get folks in the holiday shopping mood. There may even be some snow showers blowing over the mountains at times, perhaps early Thursday and maybe over the weekend, but nothing compared to the mighty storm that painted the western half of our region deeply white and brought single-digit and teens temperatures to the entire region five years after the close of World War II.

The Great Appalachian Storm featured an odd north-northwest track of a low-pressure system through central Virginia, resulting in a hard split between a significant to major snowstorm for western areas and little or no snow to the east, split roughly by the Blue Ridge.

Roanoke received 8.2 inches of snow on Nov. 24 into early Nov. 25 of 1950, the largest November snowfall and earliest snowfall of 8 or more inches on record going back to the start of official local weather data in 1912. But Lynchburg, an hour’s drive east in modern times on U.S. 460, had no accumulation. Similarly, 5 inches at Martinsville dropped off to a dusting, 0.3 inch, traveling 30 miles east to Danville.

Virginia was not the epicenter of heavy snow in the Great Appalachian Storm. That was West Virgina, Ohio and western Pennsylvania, where many locations received 2 to 4 feet of snow, with a maximum of over 5 feet — 62 inches — at Coeburn Creek, W.Va.

The snow map for the 1951 Great Appalachian Storm. Judging from many reports in Central and Southside Virginia, the map may be too generous assigning 2-6-inch amounts in those areas, as snow accumulations cut off pretty quickly between Roanoke (8.2 inches) and Lynchburg (trace) and also between Martinsville (5 inches) and Danville (0.3 inch). Courtesy of National Weather Service. — The snow map for the 1951 Great Appalachian Storm. Judging from many reports in Central and Southside Virginia, the map may be too generous, assigning 2-6-inch amounts in those areas, as snow accumulations cut off pretty quickly between Roanoke (8.2 inches) and Lynchburg (trace) and also between Martinsville (5 inches) and Danville (0.3 inch). Courtesy of National Weather Service.

But some locations in western Virginia topped a foot. Blacksburg, Hot Springs and Wytheville each got 14 inches of snow. Burke’s Garden in Tazewell County collected 19 inches over four days, as snow kept swirling into the state’s southwest corner behind a low that had moved into Ohio.

Some other regional snow totals, collected between Nov. 24 and 28, 1950, included: Hillsville, 10 inches; Saltville, 8.9 inches; Bristol, 8 inches; Copper Hill, 6 inches; Stuart, 4 inches; Lexington, 3.5 inches; Appomattox, trace.

While Central and Southside Virginia did not reap the bounty of snowfall in the Great Appalachian Storm, the entire region experienced extreme cold, with single digits and teens low temperatures common, some spots dropping below zero in the Southwest corner.

The sharp cutoff of snowfall west to east across the region was due to the unique evolution of the powerful low-pressure system at the heart of the Great Appalachian Storm.

The surface weather map early on Saturday, Nov. 25, 1950 shows a low-pressure system centered near South Hill, with snow spread to the west and rain to the east. This low would soon be pulled north-northwestward toward Ohio and snow would quickly end before it could spread accumulations much past the Blue Ridge. Courtesy of National Weather Service. — The surface weather map early on Saturday, Nov. 25, 1950, shows a low-pressure system centered near South Hill, with snow spread to the west and rain to the east. This low would soon be pulled north-northwestward toward Ohio, and snow would quickly end before it could spread accumulations much past the Blue Ridge. Courtesy of National Weather Service.

A surface low forming near the coast of the Carolinas would more typically track north-northeast near or just off the East Coast. But it was captured by a strong upper-level over the Ohio Valley and pulled north-northwest, eventually fusing with another low along an Arctic cold front and wrapping up into a powerfully yet slow-moving storm.

The track of the low through central Virginia kept mild and moist air east of it but pulled in bitterly cold Arctic air that changed rain to snow to its west. The snow spread slightly east of the Blue Ridge before the low tracked far enough northwest that drier air was pulled in.

The overall evolution of the Great Appalachian Storm is not too dissimilar from the way Hurricane Helene was captured by an upper-level low to its northwest last fall or Hurricane Sandy being pulled northwest by a strong upper-level low in October 2012, the inland snowfall results of what became known as “Superstorm Sandy” are even reminiscent of the Great Appalachian Storm, especially in West Virginia.

By early on Sunday, Nov. 26, 1950, the low-pressure system at the center of the Great Appalachian Storm was tightly wound up over Ohio, with a cold front oddly advancing northward into New England and a warm front sliding southwestward into Michigan. Only some snow showers were still wrapping around the storm into parts of Southwest Virginia by this point. Courtesy of National Weather Service.

The Oct. 30, 2012. surface weather map of what became known as "Superstorm Sandy" bears strong similarity to the surface map of the Great Appalachian Storm above, though the low center is shifted more eastward. Courtesy of National Weather Service. — The Oct. 30, 2012, surface weather map of what became known as “Superstorm Sandy” bears strong similarity to the surface map of the Great Appalachian Storm above, though the low center is shifted more eastward. Courtesy of National Weather Service.

The intensely wrapped low-pressure system over the eastern Ohio Valley twisted atmospheric dynamics into some gnarly effects, such as an Arctic cold front advancing northward over Pennsylvania while warmer air from the western Atlantic was pulled westward over southern Canada and edged southwestward into northern Michigan. Buffalo, N.Y., known famously for its extreme cold and heavy snow, enjoyed partly cloudy skies and 50s highs, while Pittsburgh, 200 miles to its south, was hammered with high winds, bitter cold and over 30 inches of snow.

The Michigan-Ohio State game on Nov. 25, 1950, was played in a swirling blizzard at Columbus, Ohio. Before more than 50,000 hardy fans, some of whom lit fires to keep warm (Hokies and Wahoos: Please don’t do this in Charlottesville on Saturday, either because of it being a little chilly or something related to the game), the game featured 45 punts in a 9-3 win that sent Michigan to the Rose Bowl. All three scores resulted directly or indirectly from punting miscues — a safety plus a touchdown and extra point for Michigan, and a field goal kicked almost blindly through wind-driven snow by Ohio State.

Michigan kicks the extra point for the game's only touchdown in a 9-3 win over Ohio State in the November 25, 1950, renewal of their college football rivalry in Columbus, Ohio. This game featured 45 punts, and all three scores in the game were the result, directly or indirectly, of punting miscues. This "Snow Bowl" game was played during heavy snow caused by the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950, which also left up to 19 inches of snow on parts of western Virginia on Thanksgiving weekend. Public Domain photo, originally in Michiganensian yearbook. — Michigan kicks the extra point for the game’s only touchdown in a 9-3 win over Ohio State in the November 25, 1950, renewal of their college football rivalry in Columbus, Ohio. This game featured 45 punts, and all three scores in the game were the result, directly or indirectly, of punting miscues. This “Snow Bowl” game was played during heavy snow caused by the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950, which also left up to 19 inches of snow on parts of western Virginia on Thanksgiving weekend. Public Domain photo, originally in Michiganensian yearbook.

More seriously, the Great Appalachian Storm is blamed for 383 deaths and nearly $67 million in damage, which translates into over a billion dollars in modern money adjusted for inflation. Besides the heavy snow, a large section of the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast were affected by high winds and even some storm surge along the coast.

When I think of the Great Appalachian Storm, which happened 20 years before I was born and 800 miles from where I grew up, I think of a longtime reader of my weather column in The Roanoke Times who went by W.D. Brand. He lived on Twelve O’Clock Knob in southwest Roanoke County. W.D. had such fond memories of that snowfall from his youth that he would always, every year, enter Nov. 24 as the predicted date of the first snowfall in my annual snowfall prediction contest.

W.D., who died a few years ago, would not be happy at all that (1) the current iteration of the contest in Cardinal News starts with Dec. 1 as the first date when snowfall totals are counted, so Nov. 24 isn’t an option (he growled at me a couple of times when I used Dec. 1 as the starting date in The Roanoke Times version, so much so I moved it back to Nov. 15) and (2) the first snowfall date is no longer part of the contest, a casualty of differing observation cycles (midnight to midnight for some, 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. for others) at a larger number of sites across a much larger region.

Nevertheless, in honor of W.D., or just because you haven’t yet, please remember to enter the Cardinal Weather snowfall contest. We are taking entries through midnight on Saturday, Nov. 29. How to enter is below. (Yes, I said I might get to my own winter/snowfall forecast this week, but I’m pushing that till next week.)

Snow thickly covers tree branches lit by the morning sun on Jan. 4, 2022, in southern Roanoke County. Photo by Kevin Myatt.

How to enter the 2025-26 Cardinal Weather snowfall prediction contest:

Select THREE locations out of the following 10: Abingdon, Appomattox, Blacksburg, Burke’s Garden, Clintwood, Danville, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Roanoke, Wytheville.
Guess the total snowfall between Dec.1 and March 31, rounded to the nearest inch, for each of those three locations.
Email your guesses to weather@cardinalnews.org. Give me your name and where you live (general location — town, city, county or portion of county — not specific address). It is OK to include more than one entry on the same email, for different family members (no age limits!), or a group, a school class, etc., just make sure names are clearly labeled for each set of picks.
Deadline for receiving entries is 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29.

The winner of a $25 gift card for first place will be whoever misses the total snowfall from Dec. 1 to March 31 by the lowest number of total inches for the best two of their three picks, snow totals rounded to the nearest inch. If there is a tie, we’ll consider the third pick as a tiebreaker. If it’s still tied, whoever sends me their entry first wins.

For more on the contest, including historic data for the 10 locations that may help guide your picks, click on the Nov. 12 Cardinal Weather column.

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.

To submit a photo, send it to weather@cardinalnews.org or tweet it to @CardinalNewsVa or @KevinMyattWx. Please identify the location and date of the photo with each submission.

Sign up for his weekly newsletter: