THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 14, 1995 TAG: 9511140097
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
If this is a precursor, it could be a very long winter.
All the pieces were falling into place Monday as forecasters held to their warning that a major northeaster is to form today off the Carolinas. This early, winterlike storm could batter the coast with strong surf while dumping upwards of a foot of snow inland.
``Everything's starting to come together now,'' said meteorologist Bill Kneeley of the Weather Channel in Atlanta. ``The cold air is in place, and it looks like a major low is going to take shape on the Carolina beaches. It's going to be a forecasting nightmare.''
While heavy seas and pounding rain are expected, Hampton Roads and eastern North Carolina are not likely to see a flake of snow. That is expected to stay in the western parts of both states as well as in Northern Virginia. But the Outer Banks and the Sandbridge and Oceanfront areas of Virginia Beach - where previous storms have already eaten away much of the beach - could see yet more erosion.
How bad? That was uncertain Monday and depends largely on exactly where along the coast the storm forms, how quickly it intensifies and how fast it moves northeast.
The watermen of North Carolina who have ridden out scores of storms weren't taking any chances. Captains of the large fishing trawlers based in Wanchese, N.C., headed home on Monday from the Gulf Stream.
``It's gonna be a bad one,'' Butch Midgett of Etheridge Fishing Co. said while watching clouds accumulating on his color computer screen that's linked to a weather satellite.
The northeaster will be teaming up with a very strong area of high pressure over eastern Canada. The opposing circulation patterns of the two systems will work together to push strong winds and waves into the coast, with the greatest threat of erosion wherever the two systems squeeze each other the hardest.
In Sandbridge on Monday, city crews weren't taking chances. They were out pushing beach sand up against exposed sections of Sandfiddler Road. Meanwhile, residents were checking on sandbags and other measures they have taken to protect their homes.
The storm will steer huge amounts of Atlantic moisture over the middle Atlantic states.
``The Atlantic waters are still mild at this time of year, and this warmer air from the ocean will move inland ahead of the low,'' said John A. Billet of the National Weather Service in Washington.
``This will cause the precipitation to be mainly rain from Washington, D.C., south and east. The rain in these areas could be heavy at times Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night, possibly causing some urban flooding and pounding of water on roads.''
Somewhere west of Richmond, however, the precipitation is expected to change to snow.
The snow will be piling up from New York and Pennsylvania to the southern Appalachians, the National Weather Service said Monday as it began issuing winter storm watches over a huge swath of the East.
``Heavy snow is likely Tuesday and Tuesday night over western Maryland, western sections of the eastern panhandle of West Virginia and extreme western Virginia,'' Billet said.
More than a foot of snow is likely over much of western Pennsylvania and Maryland, extending into West Virginia. Lesser amounts are expected in western Virginia, including Roanoke, Charlottesville, Staunton and Harrisonburg.
For forecasters, the difficulty in predicting what this storm will do comes when they try to draw the line between rain and snow. MEMO: Staff writer Lane DeGregory contributed to this report.
by CNB