Snow Really? Augusta Could Get 2-4 Inches on Saturday With Winter System
While nothing is guaranteed in the complicated world of winter weather in the South, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll finally get some snow worth playing in.
Remember just a few days ago when the ice storm of the century blanketed the country, and made conditions a bitch sketchy in the CSRA for a few days? Well, buckle your seatbelts, because we aren't done yet!
Latest projections from the National Weather Service now have Augusta and the CSRA in the outer rungs of a very complicated winter weather system developing for Friday night and Saturday. While nothing is guaranteed in the complicated world of winter weather in the South, there's a pretty good chance we'll finally get some snow worth playing in.
The system looks to begin some light snowfall late Friday night, with the bulk of it falling during the afternoon and evening Saturday.
The Setup
This one is complicated. Very complicated. But here's a quick and dirty version. There's a lot of cold air already here. There's another polar vortex moving in and bringing some additional cold air with it.
At the same time, a low pressure system off the coast is pushing some moisture inland (it's not really as simple as all that, but just go with it for now). And as all of those systems start to combine, it's creating the perfect scenario for good old fashioned snow.
There's very little chance of it being anything but snow at this point. We're in all-or-nothing territory, basically. It'll be light, fluffy snow. Which is good for long-term impacts. But not great for snowmen and sledding.
What to Expect, and the Complications
Forecasting winter weather is a tricky science, and that is particularly true in the South. But everything looks to be coming together on all of the models for this one at this point.
On the low end of the spectrum, the National Weather Service expects about an inch of snow in Augusta, and more accumulation the further north and east you go from there.
But the general "probable" snowfall amount is currently falling into the 2-4 inch range. The margin of difference between Augusta and Columbia is massive though, as Columbia is projected at 5-9 inches.
That means a shift either direction could make this a bigger event, or a small, disappointing event. Overnight models Thursday into Friday should clear this up quite a bit.
There's one additional complication, and that's in a weird confluence of the two systems at play. There could be a vertical path between the two storms that makes some areas get a lot less than others. We'll talk about that more tomorrow.
