Rainy weekend ahead – some snow Sunday night mountains west

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Updated 4-14-07 1:31 EDT

This is why I always say don’t always listen to the National Weather Service in DC. They, many times, don’t know what’s happening on the ground here in Nelson so far down south.

NWS Forecast as of 1251 PM EDT Sat Apr 14 2007

Now
Expect occasional sprinkles through the early afternoon across northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Isolated locations may receive enough to barely wet the ground… otherwise the rainfall will not be enough to measure through 3pm.

Funny, our gauge here at the Nelson County LIfe Magazine office shows a fifth of an inch of rain since midnight. Certainly not a huge amount, but certainly enough to measure.

Other NCL weathernet sites such as NCL-Wintergreen Winery show .22″ of rain since midnight and on the mountain at NCL-Wintergreen Nature Foundation, they have had cold .22″ of rain up there as well. Enough to be measured don’t you think? Speaking of rainfall mesurements, here’s a neat link of just rain and flood guages at locations in other parts of the county. You can’t get temps there, but you can see rainfall amounts. Thanks to Henri Weems of Rodes Farm for telling us about this one. Very nice!

More updates later this evening, but right now we’re even seeing breaks in the clouds here at the office in Greenfield. Don’t be fooled, the real heavy rain is later tonight and tomorrow.

Have a great Saturday afternoon,
Tommy

Older post below:
Good Friday evening and Saturday morning to everyone.

What a beautiful Friday. Mostly sunny skies and temps in the 60’s made it feel pretty nice other than a nip in the occasional winds. Today was my first try at learning golf. More on that later in the weekend and next month’s issue, but what a perfect day to be out there learning. Sean Taylor, the golf director at Wintergreen is my instructor, man does he know his stuff!

Later Yvette and I went up the mountain to The Wintergreen Nature Foundation where Mr. Paul Saunders, author of Heartbeats of Nelson, had his first small book signing. What a wonderful piece of work. The book is excellent! We’ll have more on that later this weekend as well times for the next signing, which includes the folk fest at Pharsalia next weekend. You are going to want a copy of this book believe me, you’lll be very sorry if you don’t get one.

Weatherwise, look for more rain over the next 48 hours. Friday night clouds began streaming in and some light rain is possible Saturday morning, though the heavier rain comes Saturday night into Sunday. Lows Friday will be in the upper 30’s valley and mid 30’s mountains. If the clouds hold off for a bit temps could drop a degree or so colder, but not very likely as the clouds moving in will tend to hold the temps up.

On Saturday rain begins – again heavier later- with temps pretty much staying in the low 50’s for everyone, around 50 mountains. Sat night rain increases and becomes heavy as we head toward the morning hours Sun.

NWS mentions this in their Friday evening discussion:

Saturday night through Sunday morning…and this is when there is
the highest probability for heavy rainfall.

Lows Sat night low 40’s valley and mid 30’s mountain. Some snow / rain mix could occur there. Sun rain contiunues, heavy from time to time, with increasing northerly winds. Temps in the valley don’t make it much above the mid 50’s valley ( I think that is optimistic) and in the 40’s mountains.

By Sunday night, this is where it could get interesting in the mountains. Especially, if you are on the west side of the Blue Ridge, look for snow developing. Several inches not out of the question at the higher elevations.

NWS says it this way in their discussion:

Based off the weather/quantitative precipitation forecast grids from our gridded database…a
snow total of 4 to 8 inches is expected during that time frame. HPC
westward graphics support this thinking. A Winter Storm Watch may be
necessary in future shifts to address the heavy snow potential.

Another big change, high winds moving in Sun night into Monday. Gusts well above 30+ MPH are possible. Though by Monday we do get partly sunny skies, temps again in the mid 50’s valley.

The rest of the week looks quiet with temps finally hitting the lower 60’s for highs by week’s end.

I’ll be updating again Saturday by afternoon, as this system is being closely watched for changes. Also pics and more from other things happening as well.

Have a great weekend!
Tommy

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