What Happened?
January 20th, 2009 at 3:16 pm by Jeremy Wheeler under Weather
If you’re on the southside, then you are as depressed as I am. NO snow in some cities. Bust. Suffolk did get some snow though. It came down pretty good for a while in Driver. We saw some snow photos from Franklin. We has some light snow in Portsmouth. Barely anything in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. It looked like some fell in Chesapeake on radar. There were scattered snow showers across Northeast North Carolina. The snow fell pretty good from East of Elizabeth City down to the Outer Banks. The photo from above was from Powell’s Point south of Grandy. From some of the photos it looks like 1-2 inches in some cities down that way. Raleigh got hit pretty hard with several inches of snow. I think Rocky mount up to Ahoskie had some good snow in places.
So what happened? The low did form offshore. Winds upstairs tried to push moisture north. But the winds at the surface were very strong out of the North/Northeast. That was no surprise. Dewpoints (The measure of humidity) dropped quickly. So the snow probably fell out of the clouds and mostly dried up. The drying was evident on radar this morning. But some impressive returns did move up from North Carolina for a while. It had a chance, but got shot down. I’ve read a lot of the comments on here, and I understand the frustration. Before I left for work I explained to my son that he might not see much snow today. He was really sad with tears in his eyes. There’s a lot of parents out there in the same boat. Tell them I’m sorry, but up until this morning things were really looking good for snow. Snow forecasting around here is very difficult. That’s been said by many forecasters. One big reason is the water. The ocean and the bay aren’t sampled very well. The warm water can rev up systems quickly offshore. Sometimes Bay effect snow can happen as well. Plus the Gulf Strem offshore plays a big role in weather. Another reason is our latitude. We are often visited by wild temperature swings. We always seem to be on the edge of the Rain Versus Snow line. Today we were definitely cold enough for snow, but again the dry air.
WAVY/Fox 43 Meteorologist
Good job guys. I took my lumps at work as well!
Is there any hope for snow this year?
Although also disappointed and dealing with a sad 5 year old whose boots have been by the door all day, I do appreciate the blogs, Jeremy, since finding info throughout the day was impossible and cryptic at best. The weather channel just kept showing snow and the banners below the innaugural coverage didn’t explain much. It’s nice that you bothered to explain things between forecasts for those of us who are confused and frustrated at the on/off forecasts. Thanks!
Alas, it was not meant to be…but I would much rather have you forecasters calling for snow that we don’t get, than the alternative, and everyone caught completely off guard when it does develop. Having grown up in Oklahoma with the wild weather there, I completely agree with the unpredictablity of Mother Nature, particularly in this area. All we can do is hope for another, more favorable system!
I was hoping for snow and didn’t get any:( must be nice to lie for a living. ha ha ha
oh well hopefully we will get some before winter is over.
yeah it sucks we didn’t get any i study weather alot and kept up with it all last night and the day they first issued the winter storm watch you think we might get some the end of this month into febuary?
This is Hampton Roads; this is not unexpected! I never believe it is going to happen until I see the flakes in the air.
Thanks for these blogs, I find it really nice to be able to keep up to date, as in this area the forecast can change rapidly. I’m also glad the schools errored on the side of caution, I remember last year when they did not and there were many people hurt, some hurt badly. My thanks to everyone involved. Be be safe than sorry.
Well, here is another one of those typical Tidewater weather days. Predict storms, it drizzles; predict snow, it flurries. Maybe we should just say there will be weather today with temps around ????? That way our weather forecasters might be more right than wrong. ;>)
Well I have learned around here, when snow is in the forcast. Be ready for it, but don’t get your hopes up.
No worries Jeremy. Hampton Roads should be used to this stuff by now. Weather has total unpredictability! Altho it would be nice to have a significant snowfall for us there are so many construction workers out of work due to economy, those that do have work can’t when it snows!
I will take what God gives us and really appeciate ya’ll and the dedication you, Jon, and Don and Cheryl give. I am a dedicated Wavy watcher! At least ya’ll are FAR more tuned in than any other station. WAVY TV is the best!
I had a feeling it wasn’t going to snow. I have given up on the idea of snow around here.
Hopefully we will have another shot at some snow before the end of the season.
Hey, no worries Jeremy. I’ve lived here 18 years and I’m used to it. We will get our share eventually.
I got a day off anyway.
It’s all good… people need to be working now and not worrying about days off! Be happy that another day happened to help improve the state of things now! Snow is fun, but so is a healthy and happy community/economy. Thanks for the updates throughout the day!
The hope for snow this year is very slim to almost none.
We are well into a LA-NINA WEATHER PATTERN
WHICH MEANS A ZONAL FLOW OF HIGH RIVER AIR.
PACIFIC AIR INSTEAD OF PURE COLD ARTIC AIR.
WE HAD NO SNOW LAST YEAR
AND LOOKS LIKE WERE IN THE
SAME BOAT THIS YEAR
DERRICK CORNELL CEPHAS
i really appreciate your attitude about this,jeremy.i mean that seriously,i can imagine it is not fun to read all the negative comments.i want to ask you, though, if you can tell me about the computer models.it seems that the only time i hear about them on wavy forecasts is when you guys are disagreeing with the info they give, and here’s the thing, i notice that you guys are almost always right when you disagree with them. so what gives? are these models even helpful?
I am glad it did not snow. snow just causes a lot of dangerous driving conditions and thousands of traffic accidents.
I remember when I was younger, it seemed to snow in Hampton Roads a LOT more (at least one sizable snow per year, it seemed.) Has global warming caused the lack of winter weather in our area or something?
Good job guys…forcasting the weather can be very tricky especially here and to all the people who left the horrible comments on the other blogs need to relax…and stop being rude…I can only imagine that being friends with them would be an awful experience…hopefully we will get some snow around here before the end of the season and if not, well the mountains are not a far drive if I really feel the urge!!!
My family is certainly disappointed. However, knowing that Jeremy Wheeler is just as disappointed as us in comforting. We forgive you!
OK, so we didn’t get snow. But why were the reporters acting like there was a blizzard going on behind them? and that one shot of a muddy tire track with a few flakes stuck in it was pathetic.
I am not from here originally from south carolina.I have noticed one thing about this area,that you ppl like to blow things way out of proportion.I mean just like the snow storm look at what u did……school closed having to find babysitters or taking the day off.you guys really need to get your stuff together,I mean last year u’ll damn near predicted a hurricane and what happened strong winds,I am sorry you guys dont get to report on hurricanes and blizzards but dont blow things out of propotion just to be like the big time,Its va beach not anything else its a boring town.
Yep, I was very sad that there wasn’t any snow on the ground when I woke up. Then Williamsburg didn’t even call off schools while the rest of Hampton Roads did!
I think it’s all just a pattern. When I was about 7, I remember several winters in a row, we got some pretty big snow storms. We once got of school for an entire week. Snow would just pile up. Now, we hardly get anything and it’s sad!!!