Is It Snowing in Virginia Or Not?

It looks like (by the radar) that it's snowing over much of Virginia at 9 a.m. this morning. But is it really? Sometimes it's hard to tell whether snow is really falling in a given area. As meteorologists we feel more comfortable if we can see what's happening and not take a computer's word for it. How can we be sure?

Clue #1: Radar

Snow has been indicated in the mid-Atlantic on the radar since last night but sometimes, especially in winter, some or all of that precipitation is not reaching the ground, because it evaporates first. (This is known in meteorology as "virga").

A snapshot of this morning's radar is shown below -- click here for the real thing (PREMIUM | PRO).

Blue Stuff = Snow (In Theory)

Clue #2: Webcams

Weather web cameras don't lie. But sometimes webcams are sparse. There aren't very many webcams in south-central Virginia, and none that are showing snow this morning. Click here for a list of webcams in Virginia.

Clue #3: Airport Observations

We can take a look at "official" government weather observations at airports, which can also be in question. (There are various private and amateur networks out there but none measure winter precipitation). It used to be, a human would look outside, observe winter precipitation, and then type that into a computer. That seemed to make sense. But now in the computer age, many stations have computers guessing what precipitation is falling from the sky. (Some, especially at larger airports, have humans augmenting the observations). If you've ever worked with computers, you know they aren't always right. Below is a map of the airport observations this morning, and they do indicate that light snow is falling across south-central Virginia. You can see weather observations in Virginia on our Premium site (take a 30-day free trial) by starting at the Richmond, VA 15-Day Forecast Page and clicking on the brown "State Conditions" button on your left. On the Professional site (take a 30-day free trial), you can view the current version of the image below.

Snapshot of Airport Obs

Clue #4: Snow Spotter Reports

The government takes eyewitness snow spotter reports but typically they release them some time after the fact. A quick check of this morning's reports shows no reports out of Virginia yet. WeatherMatrix also takes snow spotter reports, but no one from Virginia has posted accumulations to the SnowMatrix as of 10 a.m.