There is no actual official meteorological moniker “superstorm,” but the term has been applied by the media and popular usage to a couple of storms with extraordinary intensity and unorthodox synoptic evolution. Flurries flew on winds gusting up to 60 mph even into the Roanoke Valley. Light accumulations made it as far as east as the New River Valley – Blacksburg tallied 0.6 inch, its first measurable October snow in 50 years – and the higher elevations of the Blue Ridge. (Climate researcher Wayne Browning has an extensive analysis of Sandy and its snowfall in Southwest Virginia on his High Knob Landform blog, linked here: )Ĭoming as it did on northwest winds wrapping around Sandy’s circulation center to the north, the snow tended to dry out crossing the Appalachians, as is often the case. Some of the highest elevations of Wise and Dickenson counties near 3,000 feet of elevation reported more than 2 feet of snowfall, with 6-12 inches not uncommon even down to about 1,600 feet before dropping off to minor amounts below that. Note also the light shades of light snow accumulation along the Blue Ridge farther east. West Virginia had by far the widest distribution of heavy snow, but some isolated heavier amounts occurred in Southwest Virginia also. This map shows snowfall totals following Superstorm Sandy. Sandy’s principal legacy in Virginia, however, was heavy wet snowfall focused on a few counties in the Southwest part of the state west of Interstate 77, amounts regionally unprecedented for October, an extension of similar snowfall that clocked much of West Virginia. Sandy wasn’t really Virginia’s storm, but it did churn up some waves on the coast as it passed by offshore in the last stages of its hurricane phase and, once inland, spun through some roaring, chilly winds that knocked out power to a few thousand mainly in the mountains of the western side of the state. Nationally, though, Superstorm Sandy was the biggest weather story of 2012, affecting 24 states and causing an estimated $65 billion in damage, with economic and political shock waves lasting many years, perhaps not entirely settled out yet.Īs the 10 th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy is recalled this week, it will be remembered as a monstrous pre-Halloween ‘Frankenstorm’ that transformed from powerful hurricane to sprawling, pinwheeling extratropical low-pressure system, devastating the Jersey Shore and carrying inland impacts as far west as Lake Michigan. Ironically, the part of the state least affected by the derecho, the extreme Southwest corner of the state, can claim the most memorable impacts from Sandy, and diametrically opposite ones to the sweltering heat of derecho day. That, of course, would be June 29, 2012, the day of the destructive and deadly derecho that rolled across most of the state. 29, 2012 – plays second-fiddle in Virginia weather to the 29 th day of another month in the same year. The day Superstorm Sandy came ashore 10 years ago – Oct. Want to be the first to see weather news? Sign up for our weekly email weather newsletter, featuring weather journalist Kevin Myatt.
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