Our weather the last few days has been bizarre - yesterday morning it was 60 and sunny, literally T-shirt weather, and then down at 34 by late afternoon, with warnings on snow and ice by late night.
Today, at our immediate location, it was cold, but sunny with a clear blue sky. However, the second snow storm is suppose to come through late tonight, dumping anywhere from 7" to barely a skiff.
This isn't the first time we've had a weather buffet in a 24 hour period. Several years ago, also on an late winter day, we woke up to sleet, snow, 65 degree weather and then fog and steam rising from the roads, all in a 4-5 hour period.
The cause of this - or so people tell me - is our close proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains. They act as a natural buffer for any weather moving from west to east. Most storms just hit the mountains and get nudged northward towards Philadelphia.
Several years ago when I was flying out of Roanoke on my way back to Minnesota, I took the top photo from the plane, showing a fog bank rolling against the Blue Ridge.
A year or so after that, someone much more talented than myself (grubbphoto.com) took this famous photo of the same phenomena:
There's also a sister photo taken on the same day, showing the fog rolling over Bluefield, Virginia.
So I have my mountains to thank for our safe trip up to Bedford tonight - they held off the snowstorm, at least so far tonight. Who knows what we'll wake up to?
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Carole, we have been amazed at the similarities between the weather here and the weather along the Eastern Front Range of the Rockies (Denver/Colorado Springs, etc.). The mountains here are at a lower elevation, but hey, the "plains" are at a lower elevation too. (g)
ReplyDeleteI used to think "If you don't like the weather, just wait ten minutes" was a Colorado mantra. Then friends said the same thing about Montana...Idaho...Texas. And now I can say the same thing about our part of VA!
Kristine/brfun