THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511040276
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
That woosh you heard Friday night was fall passing by. Welcome to winter-like weather.
A powerful cold front was expected to quickly rake away the last vestiges of the summerlike weather the mid-Atlantic region has enjoyed in recent days.
The temperature plunge was likely to be dramatic - from a high of 80 in Norfolk on Friday to the lower 40s this morning.
``The weather across the region will be changing rapidly,'' said Dewey Walston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Washington.
Greg Noonan of the Weather Service office in Wakefield said, ``The coldest air so far this season is headed toward central and eastern Virginia, the lower Maryland Eastern Shore and northeast North Carolina for the weekend.''
And that's just the opening act.
Tonight is expected to be even chillier, with a good chance that early risers on Sunday morning in inland areas will find everything covered in a silvery glaze of frost.
``Saturday night will be the night for a widespread freeze across central Virginia as temperatures drop into the upper 20s to lower 30s,'' Noonan said. Adding to the chill will be gusty northwest winds of 15 to 25 mph.
``Only areas immediately adjacent to the coast will escape the risk of frost,'' said Mike L. Moneypenny of the Weather Service office in Raleigh. ``People planning on traveling to the mountains this weekend should pack suitable clothing and be prepared for cold overnight temperatures.''
The expected hard freeze could damage crops that have not been harvested, ``particularly sweet potatoes and peanuts which have been dug but not collected,'' Moneypenny said. ``House plants and ornamentals should be moved indoors if possible.''
The front - which extended from New England south along the Eastern Seaboard - was swiftly crossing Virginia and North Carolina at midafternoon Friday. Evidence was clear in temperature readings.
At 4 p.m., the temperature was 77 at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport - the warmest place in Virginia, as it turned out. On the other side of the state, the reading was 49 in Blacksburg, 45 in Abingdon, 44 in Marion and 40 in Hot Springs. And in Wheeling, W.Va., where the temperature was 44, steady winds made it feel like it was 27.
The cold front is expected to have moved through Hampton Roads and northeast North Carolina overnight and be well offshore by this morning.
``There may be a few snow flurries over the mountains of West Virginia and western Maryland, but no accumulation is expected,'' Walston said.
On the plus side, the region should enjoy clear skies and dry weather for a few days with temperatures moderating by midweek. But then another cold front is forecast to be approaching.
That doesn't necessarily mean we're done with balmy weather for the year, however.
``It's impossible to tell,'' said Neil Stuart, a meteorologist at the Weather Service office in Wakefield. ``We're in a very topsy-turvy weather pattern. . . . It's highly variable.''
Rich Johnson, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta, said the cold air reaching Hampton Roads has swept through most of the nation.
``This certainly is an unusual air mass,'' Johnson said Friday. Not only is it bringing intense cold weather to much of the country early in the season, ``but the front has made it all the way south of the border'' into Mexico.
In Brownsville, Texas, temperatures dropped 33 degrees in 24 hours, from the mid-80s Thursday to the low 50s Friday.
The cold front is also bringing the first major snow storm of the season to the Great Lakes region, with significant accumulation expected in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and upper New York.
KEYWORDS: WEATHER by CNB