Weather

After a frigid Christmas weekend, we can’t really say winter hasn’t bothered showing up. But significant snowfall has been a no-show, so far. It’s still early, though, and a lot of different things can happen.

The year just past brought destructive flooding, wintry wallops and wild winds. It also brought the debut of the Cardinal Weather newsletter and weekly weather column.

Christmas Eve proved to be the coldest in a generation for Southwest and Southside Virginia, but our temperature rollercoaster may reach the 60s as the new year begins.

Air originating from the coldest part of the Arctic Circle will roar in on Friday, with plummeting temperatures all day, tree-bending wind gusts and perhaps brief sideways snow.

Some Virginia stations may see the coldest Christmas since the 1980s, a sharp contrast with last year’s record Christmas warmth. Snow cover probably won’t be widespread, though.

Chilly temperatures are a near-certainty for the Christmas season in Virginia. Snow could develop with a couple of wiggles in the atmospheric flow.

For most of Southwest and Southside Virginia, it will be a cold but substantial rain with no ice, but not far north of our region, a winter storm watch has been issued in northwest Virginia.

Developing atmospheric patterns in northern latitudes correlate with some of Virginia’s most memorable winter periods. But for Virginia to have its greatest chance of snow, another high-pressure system needs to form over western North America, and it’s not there yet.

As the Mississippi River reveals relics and Lake Mead gives up its dead, most of Southwest and Southside Virginia is in the 18% of the nation not considered abnormally dry.

The Old Dominion is thankfully spared the massive Buffalo-sized piles, but the Great Lakes do spray some snow into the commonwealth on occasion.