Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 9, 1995 TAG: 9502090092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As weather watchers struggled to understand the mysterious hit-or-miss snow showers that whisked across the region early Wednesday, they reached a consensus:
Ol' Man Winter is one fickle dude.
A weak storm system passed over Southwest Virginia not long before dawn, leaving snow and ice in some places but barely a dusting in others. In some cases, neighborhoods less than five miles apart experienced weather conditions as different as Barney and Godzilla.
Drivers in downtown Roanoke, for example, moved along as usual during the morning commute, but vehicles slid up and down nearby Williamson and Peters Creek roads, which had patches of packed snow and ice.
Parts of Vinton, Stewartsville and communities in the New River Valley were hit the hardest; some reported as much as two inches of snow.
"Yup, we got it here," said weather enthusiast A.B. Broyles of Vickers Switch, near Christiansburg. "It's a feathery snow, as light as cotton."
According to Chip Knappenberger in the state climatologist's office in Charlottesville, the unpredictable precipitation started here and worked its way down to Georgia by the afternoon.
"There wasn't much moisture to work with, so the precipitation was spotty," he said. "It was an interesting system because it really couldn't get its act together. If there was enough moisture, it spit and spewed some. If there wasn't, it moved on."
The wacky weather pattern stumped school officials who had the unenviable task of deciding whether to cancel or delay classes. Most jurisdictions postponed openings by an hour or two, but schools in Vinton and the New River Valley stayed closed all day.
Deanna Gordon, Roanoke County school superintendent, was awake shortly after 4 a.m., trying to figure out what was going on. She called her weather sources, found out the most current Doppler readings and sent route supervisors out to investigate road conditions before deciding to close Vinton schools and delay the county's school day by two hours.
"We heard that in extreme areas of South County, the weather was bad, but in Catawba and the northern part of the county, there was virtually no accumulation," she said.
As Gordon wended her way through Vinton on her way to work, she saw the strange patterns firsthand.
"I came through at about 8:30 a.m., and the roads in Vinton were pretty slick," she said. "But by the time I crossed Williamson Road, there wasn't a flake of snow. I knew people would think we were nuts for closing school. This was one of those mornings where conditions varied from one end of the county to the other."
Bedford County was faced with a similar situation but chose to keep schools open and on time Wednesday. The decision provoked angry calls to school administrators from at least one mother.
Tammy Terry lives off Hardy Road, near the Bedford County-Vinton border. She has a daughter who attends Staunton River Middle School and a son at Stewartsville Elementary School.
"In Bedford they got nothing, but we had snow and ice," she said. "One lady's car slid across my mother's field ... We're a part of Bedford County, too. My kids go to Bedford County schools, but we just fell through the cracks."
The slippery roads in Terry's neighborhood also caused a minor school bus accident after a bus carrying children to Staunton River Middle School slid into an embankment when it tried to stop at a stop sign. There were no injuries.
The weather forecast for today and Friday is unlikely to provide much guidance. Ken Kostura, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, said temperatures are expected to rise some, with highs in the mid-30s, but flurries still are possible through Friday.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***