February 18 - 20th 1979
This storm ranks six of the highest snow producing Nor' easters of all time to affect the
state of West Virginia. It
is referred to as the "President's Day" storm. Five to eight inches of snow was
common outside the mountains. While in the higher elevations upwards of a foot of snow fell. The
bulk of the snow fell across Washington
D.C. to Baltimore to Philadelphia metro areas where 12 to 18 inches was observed.
A strong high pressure of 1048mb built east across the Great Lakes on the night of the
17th into the morning of the 18th. At peak intensity, it reached 1050mb, and
set many record low temperatures over the northeastern United States. The high was nearly stationary
across northern New England during the time period when snow fell across West Virginia. With such a massive dome of
cold air sitting to our northeast, this enabled sub-freezing temperatures to stay entrenched across
the mid-Atlantic. Low pressure ejected out of the northern Gulf of Mexico then tracked up the
eastern seaboard. This feature brought snow to most of the mid-Atlantic and New
England. A secondary low developed across the middle Ohio Valley during the night of
the 18th and was responsible for most of the snow across West Virginia. The main surface low did supply moisture aiding the
other low pressure. Although, the coastal low was the reason heavy snow occurred on the lee side of
the Appalachians northeast into New England. As time went on, the
low that traversed the Ohio
Valley weakened and was absorbed by the coastal
cyclone.
The 850mb low was an open wave riding northeast from the mid Mississippi
river valley before it became closed off the Virginia coast With the northeast track of the cyclone, West Virginia was placed in the synoptically
favored northeast quadrant of the 850mb low. In addition, the West Virginia was bounded by the -5 to -10C isotherm, another
favored region for moderate to heavy snowfall.
The 500mb charts echoed a similar theme of the surface and 850mb plot with the storm being a weak
fast moving system until it reached the coast when it underwent rapid intensification. Zonal flow
aloft was present on the 18th with an embedded upper level disturbance, which crossed the
central United
States. As the weak area of low pressure interacted with the
subtropical jet along the Gulf
Coast, the upper level trough
intensified. The base of the trough passed across Kentucky and continued east over Virginia and North
Carolina. 500mb confluence associated with the jet stream positioned the
entire area in a favorable sector of the jet, therein enhancing snowfall rates on the
19th and 20th.
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