Princeton Public Works Department employee Jackie Phillips checks the connections on the snow blade of a city truck Tuesday afternoon.
BLUEFIELD — Up to two inches of snow is expected today, but forecasters are expecting an approaching weather system to dump as much as 18 inches of snow on the region starting midnight Thursday.
A small amount of snowfall is expected today as a weak weather system passes over the Mercer County and Tazewell County,Va., areas, but the situation could change later this week, according to meteorologist Robert Beasley with the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va.
“It will be moving through the region (Wednesday) afternoon,” Beasley said. The system might bring up to two inches of snow with it.
Thursday will look “pretty quiet,” but a large weather system will be gathering strength in Texas and begin moving east into Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, Beasley said.
“For Thursday here, we’re looking at increasing cloud cover and not looking for snow until after sunset,” he stated. “It will be sometime after 8 p.m. before any appreciable snow gets started. As soon as we get past midnight and into Friday morning, that’s when we can anticipate heavy snow.”
Forecasts do not show the snow letting up until mid to late afternoon, Beasley said. This would not be the end of the snow the storm could deliver. Storms like the one heading into the region typically bring “wrap around precipitation.” As a result, several more inches of snow could fall Friday night into Saturday.
“It definitely could (add more snow) and that should be the end of that one finally, and we can finally begin to dig out,” Beasley said. “It’s definitely coming…