Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 20, 1990 TAG: 9003202675
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Welcome to spring, which officially begins today at 4:19 p.m.
"I guess it's kind of hard to deal with something like this after all the warm weather we've been having," said Donato Cacciapaglia of the National Weather Service.
Areas of Floyd County were reporting about 2 inches of snow late Monday night, Cacciapaglia said. The New River Valley was blanketed with about an inch.
Counties between Wytheville and Lexington also reported periods of heavy snow, but no substantial accumulations.
Monroe County, W.Va., which borders Craig County, reported 7 inches of snow in some places, Cacciapaglia said.
State police said, however, that there were no reports of slippery roads caused by the late season snowfall.
A cold front moved across Virginia Monday afternoon, causing temperatures to plummet 20 degrees in three hours.
The high temperature Monday was 65 degrees, but by 6:30 p.m. Monday, the temperature at Roanoke Regional Airport had dropped to 43 degrees.
"The cold front as it went through opened the door for the winter weather to move in," Cacciapaglia said.
Cold northern air behind the cold front combined with moist southern air ahead of the front to cause the snow, which was mixed with rain in many areas.
"The timing was right on the last full day of winter," Cacciapaglia said. "This sort of thing is notorious for March."
Predictably, he said spring-like weather should rebound by Wednesday and the weekend, with temperatures again reaching into the 60s.
The surprise snowfall seemed a fitting end to a winter that sent Southwest Virginia into an early deep freeze and then forgot what season it was supposed to be through most of January and February.
by CNB